- Service
Memorial Service is pending for the month of May
- Full Obituary
Donald John Joseph, 84, of Lebanon, Ill., born Sept. 24, 1922, on a farm near Lebanon, Ill., died Monday, April 23, 2007, at Memorial Hospital, Belleville, Ill.
Dr. Joseph was a professor and Chief of Otolaryngology at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Mo., and retired after 18 years. He was a member of the O'Fallon United Church of Christ in O'Fallon, Ill. Dr. Joseph was a World War II U.S. Army veteran. He loved scouting.
Donald John Joseph was born near Lebanon, Ill., and moved at age four to O'Fallon, Ill., where he graduated from high school in 1940. He received his pre-medical education at the University of Illinois and earned his M.D. degree in 1946, at Saint Louis University, as a participant in the accelerated program associated with World War II Education. Following an internship at Deaconess Hospital in St. Louis, Mo., he entered the United States Army Medical Corps at Brooke General Hospital in San Antonio, Texas. He was assigned to the Otolaryngology section of the Department of Surgery and devoted the rest of his career to that specialty.
Following further post-graduate training at Brooke and Saint Louis University Hospitals, he was examined and certified by the American Board of Otolaryngology.
His military assignments included tours as Chief of Otolaryngology at Osaka General Hospital and the 141st General Hospital in Japan, and Madigan General Hospital, Fitzsimons General Hospital and Walter Reed General Hospital. At the latter two locations he directed the residency training programs for Army and Air Force physicians. He established a Basic Sciences Training Course for Otolaryngology residents at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology at Walter Reed in 1962. The course is still an integral part of training for otolaryngology residents in the Army, Navy and Air Force.
Col. Joseph retired from the army in 1967. His decorations included the Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Army Commendation Medal and several Certificates of Achievement. In 1988, he was selected as a Distinguished Member of the "Army Medical Department Regiment," in recognition of his work in the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss in our troops, and his successful efforts to have board-certified audiologists commissioned as officers in the Medical-Service Corps.
Immediately following military service, Dr. Joseph joined the faculty at the University of Missouri School of Medicine as professor and chief of otolaryngology. He started the program to train residents, and the program was approved in 1968, by the American Board of otolaryngology. Dr. Joseph retired from the University of Missouri in 1985, and was awarded Professor-Emeritus status.
Don served actively in numerous professional organizations, societies and committees among which were; American Academy of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy, American Trological Society, American College of Surgeons, Missouri Chapter of American College of Surgeons – charter member, Society of Military Otolaryngologists - charter member, Missouri Society of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery – charter member, Saint Louis Ear, Nose and Throat Club – past president, American Council of Accreditation of Occupational –Hearing Conservation – AAO-HNS representative for eight years – past chairman for two years, and Society of Medical Consultants to the Armed Forces.
Dr. Joseph was a contributor to several professional books and training manuals. He was a frequent speaker and faculty member at seminars and continuing medical education courses nationally and in Europe and Far East. He was a consultant in the areas of hearing loss, ear diseases, allergy of the ears, nose and throat, and hearing conservation.
Don began his scoutin activities in O'Fallon, Ill., as Tenderfoot in 1934, and was Troop 35's second Eagle Scout in 1938. He never lost his love of scouting and was active as a Citizen and Scholarship Committee Chairman of the Okaw Valley Chapter of the National Eagle Scout Association. He was awarded the Silver Wreath in 1988.
Don was a member of the O'Fallon United Church of Christ and the Lebanon Rotary Club.
He was preceded in death by his parents, Frank and Freida, nee Portz, Joseph.
Surviving are his wife, Margaret, nee Sortor, Joseph; a son, Thomas (Sally) Brown Joseph of O'Fallon, Ill.; a daughter, Doris (Richard) McGuire of New Mexico; two grandsons, Philip and Patrick; a sister, Doris Hertenstein of O'Fallon, Ill.; and a niece, Dixie (Ralph) Keck of O'Fallon, Ill.
Funeral: A Memorial Service is pending for the month of May.
MEYER FUNERAL HOME, Lebanon, Ill.
