Raymond H. Rigdon, MD (1961)
Background
Dr. Raymon Harrison Rigdon was born on July 30, 1905 in Musella, Georgia to Clifton Rigdon and Mary Harrison. He married Margaret Britt and they had two daughters, Louise and Virginia.
Dr. Rigdon passed away on July 28, 1998 in Georgia.
Medical Education & Practice
Dr. Rigdon received his MD degree from Emory University Medical School in Athens, Georgia in 1931. He completed an internship at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina in 1935, serving as an instructor of pathology from 1934 to 1935.
In 1935, Dr. Rigdon became an assistant professor in the Department of Pathology at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1939, he served as pathologist at John Gaston Hospital in Memphis. He also served as associate professor of pathology at the University of Tennessee, a position he held until 1944.
From 1944 until 1947, Dr. Rigdon worked as a professor of pathology at The University of Arkansas Hospital and practiced at the university hospital. Then, in 1947, he joined the faculty of The University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas, as professor of pathology and experimental pathology and consulted for John Sealy Hospital. In 1956 he began consulting for MD Anderson Hospital in Houston and the U.S. Public Health Service Hospital in Galveston.
Dr. Rigdon’s research interests were in human autopsies and experimental research on the relationship between smoking and cancer. He has provided expert testimony on several occasions before the United State Congress questioning the evidence for the link between smoking and cancer.
Dr. Rigdon has been involved in the American Society of Clinical Pathology and the College of American Pathologists. He has served in leadership positions for the Southern Medical Association. He was also a member of the Association for Applied Psychophysiology and the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine.
Texas Society of Pathologists
Dr. Rigdon served as president of the TSP in 1961 and received the George T. Caldwell, MD Award in 1975.
Notable Publication(s)
Dr. Rigdon has over three hundred publications. Select publications are listed below.
Neal, J., & Rigdon, R. H. (1966). Gastric tumors in mice fed benzo (a) pyrene: a quantitative study. Texas reports on biology and medicine, 25(4), 553-557.
Rigdon, R. H., & WILLEFORD, G. (1950). Sudden death during childhood with xanthoma tuberosum: review of literature and report of a case. Journal of the American Medical Association, 142(16), 1268-1271.
Rigdon, R. H. (1961). Amyloidosis: spontaneous occurrence in white Pekin ducks. The American journal of pathology, 39(3), 369.