Dr. Stephen M. Ayres

HAMPTON - Dr. Stephen M. Ayres graduated from Gettysburg College in 1951 and The Cornell University Medical College in 1957. He received residency training in internal medicine at New York Hospital and served two year in the United State Army as a radiologist. He then returned to New York Hospital for residency and fellowship training in cardiology and cardiopulmonary physiology. Following two years of general medical practice in Westfield, N.J., Dr. Ayres became director of the cardio-pulmonary laboratory at Saint Vincent's Hospital in New York City. He built a research program in both heart and pulmonary diseases and takes credit for organizing the first intensive care units in the U.S. While in New York City, he was president of the New York State Action for Clean Air in the 1960's and was on Major John Lindsay's Environmental Protection Board, as well as serving on the Board of Health in Westfield, N.J. He had been a consultant to the National Institutes of Health the Surgeon General for tobacco issues, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the United States Government.
In 1973, Dr. Ayres became Director of Medicine at the Saint Vincent's Hospital in Worcester, Mass.; 18 months later he moved to Saint Louis University to become Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Saint Louis University School of Medicine. While at Saint Louis University, he served as medical director of the University hospital and chairman of the curriculum committee for the medical school. He and others organized a successful health maintenance organization, Group Health Plan of Saint Louis, which later was privatized and sold.
In 1985, Dr. Ayres became Dean of the School of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University, Medial College of Virginia, and remained in that capacity until 1993. During his tenure as dean, he undertook a major curriculum reform, initiated a program, ultimately funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, promoting the concept of the generalist physician, and developed a series of internal changes that allowed the School of Medicine to engage more effectively in the practice of medicine. He recruited 10 new departmental chairs during his service as dean. Governor Wilder appointed him to the Board of Health, to a special panel on essential medical benefits, and a panel on workers compensation.
In 1990, the recently appointed president of Virginia Commonwealth University, Dr. Eugene Trani, moved to extend the idea of urban responsibilities to what he considered to be the global village. The result was a top-down decision to utilize university resources for international development and to extend the faculty rewards system to community service in foreign countries. Dr. Trani encouraged Dr. Ayers to visit Belarus and begin an evaluation of its health care system.
That same year, Dr. Trani asked then Dean Stephen M. Ayres to accompany him on a trip to Vladivostok, at a time when the city was still closed to most travelers and the full impact of Gorgachev's actions, particularly the idea of glasnost, was just beginning to be realized. The result was the creation of an AIHA partnership with the Medical College of Virginia and Vladivostok and the creation of a VCU Center for International Affairs. Dr. Trani continued to promote broad-based international educational initiative, however, and when Dr. Ayres completed his term as dean of the medical school, he asked him to lead a more clinically directed International Health Program that would be based in the School of Medicine.
Dr. Ayres managed an educational exchange program with the Christian Children's Fun of Richmond and the Belarus Children's Fund in Minsk, Belarus, and had developed a partnership in Kiev. In addition, informal collaborative relationships with Samara and Kazan now constitute the VCU International Health Program. Dr. Ayres was actively involved in international medical studies, health policy development, public health and in promoting the cost effective practice of critical care medicine. Two of his recently published papers deal with the Oregon Rationing experience (Brookings Institute) and the ethics of futile health care.
In 1991, President Bill Clinton appointed Dr. Ayres to the United States Science Advisory Board of the Environmental Protection Agency. In that capacity he advised the administrator of the EPA in the setting of national clean air quality standards and served on several subcommittees dealing with the preservation of the ecosystem.
Dr. Ayres was a member of numerous professional societies and was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians. He was the author of more than 150 published papers, 11 textbooks, and numerous chapters in other textbooks. In 1996, he was awarded an honorary doctoral degree by his alma mater, Gettysburg College.
The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m. tonight, at R. Hayden Smith Funeral Home with a Christian Wake service to be held at 7 p.m.. A Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated at St. Joseph Catholic Church, Buckroe Ave., Hampton, at 4 p.m. Tuesday, with interment to follow Wednesday in Hollywood Cemetery , Richmond. View and post condolences on our online guestbook at dailypress.com/guestbooks.