Pruessner, family medicine pioneer
and visionary, dies at 82

TAFP life member Harold Pruessner, M.D., of Caldwell, passed away on Dec. 21, 2007, at his home on the Shootin’ Star Ranch. He practiced family medicine for 20 years in Corpus Christi until he joined the faculty of the University of Texas Medical School at Houston in 1972. Until his retirement in 1993, Pruessner worked to promote and increase the scope of the specialty at the medical school, especially emphasizing the importance of preventive care. He helped create the Family Medicine Residency Program and later served as chair of the Department of Family Medicine.

Grant Fowler, M.D., current professor and vice chairman of UT’s Department of Family and Community Medicine, called Pruessner a pioneer. “He had an unbelievable collection of knowledge,” Fowler said in a Houston Chronicle article. “His model was continuing comprehensive care with a big bent on prevention, which was very new at that time. He was very much a visionary.”

Pruessner was awarded a medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston in 1948. He served as a physician in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. A medical student scholarship was created in his name through the TAFP Foundation, and the family has requested that memorials be made to the Harold T. Pruessner, M.D., Medical Student Scholarship. Survivors include his wife, Alma; sons, Michael Verber, Harold Pruessner, Jr., and David Pruessner; daughters, Audrey McGuyer and Janice Pruessner; 12 grandchildren; one great-grandchild; a brother, Robert Pruessner; and a sister, Mary Hudspeth.