Winfred L. Wiser

Dr. Winfred L. Wiser, 80, of Jackson died on Thursday, November 23, 2006, after an extended illness at the The Orchard. Visitation is 10:00 a.m. Monday in St. Francis Hall at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Cathedral with the service following at 12 p.m. Wright and Ferguson Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

A native of Wartrace, Tenn., Dr. Wiser was chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center from 1976 until 1996.

Winfred L. Wiser was born the youngest of six children to Elmer and Sarah Wiser, on a small farm in rural Middle Tennessee. At the age of eighteen, he enlisted in the army to fight in World War II, rapidly rising to the rank of Sergeant, commanding a platoon of tanks under General George Patton.

Declining a commission in the Army after the War, Dr. Wiser, now armed with the benefits of the GI Bill, undertook the furtherance of his education, a process he continued throughout his life. He earned his baccalaureate degree at Middle Tennessee University and his MD at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, where his studies and abilities placed him in the top ten percent of his class, qualifying him for membership in the Alpha Omega Alpha honorary medical society. Following his medical school graduation, he had a general medical practice in Hackleburg and Marion, Alabama, and finally with Dr. Ralph Brickel in Tullahoma, Tenn.

Dr. Wiser chose obstetrics and gynecology as his area of specialization and completed an ob-gyn residency at UMC in 1962 following which he practiced in Greenville, Mississippi with Dr. Fred W. Hauser from 1962 until 1967. In 1967, he returned to the UMC ob-gyn department as an assistant professor. In 1968, he was offered, and accepted an associate professor position with the obstetrics and gynecology faculty at UT Memphis and rose to the position of professor and deputy chairman of the department there when he moved back to Mississippi in 1976 to become department chair at the Medical Center.

In the first years of his tenure, Dr. Wiser begin to voice Mississippi’s need for a comprehensive, tertiary hospital for women and infants. At that time, more than 4000 babies were being born every year in the University’s labor and delivery suite in which he had trained as a resident in the early 60s—an area designed for a maximum of 2500 deliveries. Frequently, because of the shortage of the obstetrics beds, expectant mothers had to be put in hallways.

“These conditions were unacceptable to all of us, but it was Win who constantly pushed and pushed for a solution,” said Dr. Norman C. Nelson, vice chancellor for health affairs from 1973 until 1994. “By 1978, he had me convinced that a comprehensive hospital for women and infants should be the Medical Center’s number one construction priority. It remained at the top of our capital improvement list until 1996 —when we were finally able to break ground.”

“In spite of our lack of optimal facilities during his years as chair,” said Dr. Wallace Conerly, Medical Center vice chancellor for health affairs from 1994-2003, “Win recruited a superior, nationally recognized faculty for our Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He also established a residency program that remains one of the most sought after in the United States and worked with physicians across Mississippi to develop a regional system of perinatal care that today is a model for the country.”

In his 20 years as chair of the UMC department, Dr. Wiser trained 120 obstetrician gynecologists, most of whom currently practice in Mississippi.

“Dr. Wiser was a doctor's doctor,” said Dr. Joel Payne, Jr., of Jackson, who spoke for the physicians Wiser trained. “He has trained or given advice to most of the ob-gyns in the State of Mississippi. He was the doctor we all wanted to become. He required excellence of all his residents, and he taught us how to be compassionate, gentle and humble while caring for the problems of our patients.”

Former residents established a continuing medical education organization, the Wiser Society, in their mentor’s name and also funded the Medical Center’s Winfred L. Wiser Chair of Gynecologic Surgery to honor him and his legacy.

Dr. John C. Morrison, professor emeritus of obstetrics and gynecology and Dr. Wiser’s successor as department chair, called Dr. Wiser “a superb diagnostician and surgeon, and an exceptional medical educator and one of the most honorable people I’ve ever known.

“The Winfred L. Wiser Hospital for Women and Infants is a lasting testament to his lifelong dedication to women’s health—and to the quality of care he practiced, required of others and taught so very well.

“Through the ob-gyns he trained, he indirectly affected the lives of tens of thousands of women all over the country for more than three and a half decades, but his ability to attract a superior faculty and staff probably led to his crowning achieving,” Dr. Morrison said. “He transformed our Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology from a languishing, understaffed unit into a department recognized by his peers as one of the finest in the country.”

Former patients of Dr. Wiser remember him as always being there for them. “He was everything any woman would want in a physician, said Kathy Peace of Clinton. “He took care of me throughout most of my life and was both a highly trained professional and a compassionate care giver. I was fortunate to have been one of his patients.”

Dr. Wiser received many awards during his long career. He was recognized by the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology as the outstanding residency program director twice—the only person doubly honored in the history of the college. In 1999, he received the Surgeon of the Year Award from the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons.

In addition to the exceptional patient care and postgraduate training programs he established in his discipline at the Medical Center, Dr. Wiser also raised the money for the first research endowment based in a department in the UMC School of Medicine.

“He knew a strong academic department had to have a strong research program. That endowment —now more than $3 million —has helped the department increase research productivity significantly,” said Dr. Bryan Cowan, current chair of the department. “It’s also been extremely helpful in faculty recruitment because it indicates to prospective faculty that the department will support research even if federal dollars are unavailable.”

Earnings on the endowment have funded department research initiatives for more the 20 years, Cowan said.

Dr. Wiser was a fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a diplomat of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He served on the board of the directors of the American Fertility Society, on its journal committee, as a member of ACOG’s Standards Committee and as a member of the Association of Professors of Gynecology and Obstetrics Development Committee. An examiner for the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology for many years, Dr. Wiser also served as a member of the Accreditation Committee for the Council on Resident Education and Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Dr. Wiser’s other professional memberships included the American Society of Fertility and Stability; Alpha Omega Alpha medical honorary society, the American College of Surgeons, Sigma Xi, the Mississippi Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, the Gynecic Society, Southern Medical Association, the International College of Surgeons and Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Vaginal Surgeon Society. He was honorary member of the South Central Obstetrical and Gynecological Society, the Southeastern Obstetrical and Gynecological Society and was a founding member of both the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons and the North American Society for Pediatric and Adolescent Gynecology.

The author of more than 90 peer reviewed publications, Dr. Wiser also served as chief of the medical staff at the Medical Center and was a member of the Mississippi State Medical Association and the Central Medical Society. He was a communicant of St. Andrews Episcopal Cathedral.

His survivors include his wife, Alabel; two children, his daughter, Joan Van Hooser and her husband, David, of Nashville, Tenn., and his son, Nicholas Van Wiser and his wife, Cay, of Ocean Springs, Miss.; four grandchildren, Daniel Nadeau and his wife, Allison, of Charleston, S.C., Lauren Nadeau of Abilene, Texas, Win Nadeau of Nashville, Tenn., and Brittany Van Hooser of Nashville, Tenn.; two sisters, Mildred Frazier and Eunice Driver and her husband, J.C., of Murfreesboro, Tenn.:, two brothers Dr. Wymer Wiser and his wife, Laura, also of Murfreesboro, and Verlon Wiser and his wife, Nadine, of Shelbyville, Tenn.; and two stepsons and their families, Andrew Liles, his wife Dr. Charlane Liles and their son, Amos, of Jackson; and Stinson Liles, his wife, Patti, and their children, Ruby and Jasper, of Memphis, Tenn.

In lieu of flowers the family asks that memorials be made to the Winfred L. Wiser Chair of Gynecologic Surgery at the Medical Center, c/o of the Office of Development, the University of Mississippi Medical Center, 2500 North State Street, Jackson, MS 39216 or to St. Andrews Episcopal Cathedral. P.O. Box 1366, Jackson, MS 39215-1366.