Alfred Roosevelt Henderson  (Age 99)  
A long-time resident of Bethesda, Maryland, passed away at his home on March 24, 2019. He was born in Spring Lake, NJ on January 5, 1920, the second of three children of Alfred B. Henderson and Kathleen (Clarke) Henderson. He received a BS degree from LaSalle College, Pa., in 1942 and a M.D. degree from Temple University School of Medicine, PA in 1946. He also received a PH.D. in the History of Medical Sciences from George Washington University in 1965. He was a U. S. Army veteran. From 1950-1953 he was part of the surgical staff at the West Tennessee State Tuberculosis Hospital, Memphis, and during this time performed the first heart valve surgery for rheumatic heart disease done in the south. In 1953-1962 he opened a medical practice in Asbury Park, NJ and specialized in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery. In 1958 he performed the first open-heart surgery in New Jersey using a mechanical heart-lung machine developed by his team at Fitkin (Jersey Shore) Hospital. Forced to retire from surgery due to an eye problem in 1962, he moved to Bethesda, MD where he became a Historical Consultant for the Smithsonian Institution, Division of Medical Sciences, and a Staff Physician for the Veteran's Administration. From 1967 until 1989, he worked for the U.S. State Department as a Medical Officer, Clinical Director of Medicine, and in 1984 became the first U.S. Foreign Service Physician to The People's Republic of China, Beijing. While at the State Department he served as Foreign Service Physician to Secretaries of State Henry Kissinger, George Shultz, Edmund Muskie, and Cyrus Vance, and also accompanied President Reagan on his State Visit to China in 1984. He retired from the State Department in 1989 and from 1990 to 1993 was the Director of Communicable Disease, Montgomery County Department of Health, Md. He co-founded the American Osler Society in 1970. He was a member of many professional organizations including the American Association for the History of Medicine, the New York Academy of Sciences, and the American Center for Chinese Medical Sciences. An Eagle Scout, he had a life-long interest in the Boy Scouts and served as a doctor to a Boy Scout Camp in New York. His life-long passions were medicine and science, books, learning, history and opera. He is survived by eight children, Mary Kaplan, Patricia Lightfoot, Susan Henderson, Alfred William Henderson, Douglas Henderson, David Henderson, Anne Baker Beebe, and Pamela Hanson, 13 grandchildren, and eight great-grandchildren. He was much loved by family and friends. A Celebration of his life will be held this summer and interment at Arlington National Cemetery will take place in the future. Donations can be made in his name to the Boys Scouts of America and to the Humane Society.