Dr. Rene B. Menguy M.D.

Dr. Rene B. Menguy, MD

Morristown, NJ - Dr. Rene B. Menguy, MD, of Morristown, New Jersey, died peacefully after a brief illness at age 93, surrounded by his family, on the evening of April 7. Dr. Menguy is survived by his wife of 22 years, Anne Cooper Menguy of Morristown; son John F. Menguy of Victor, New York; brother Alain (Ann) Menguy of Naples, Florida; grandchildren John R. Menguy and Althea Renee Menguy of Rochester, New York; grandson Dylan Menguy of Washington, DC; stepson Kjell Purnell of Bradenton, Florida; step-daughter Myla Pridgen of Morristown; five step-grandchildren and one step-great-grandson. He is preceded in death by his first wife, Emilie Menguy (nee Rigacci) and his daughter Ghislaine "Gigi" Menguy.

Born in Prague in 1926 to Auguste Menguy and Boza Adam, Dr. Menguy served in the French Expeditionary Corps in former French Indochina during World War II. He attended the University of Hanoi in Vietnam, earned his medical degree from the Universite de Paris V in 1951, and his PhD at the University of Minnesota in 1957. He went on to become a world-renowned surgeon, practicing medicine for 62 years, and was a member of the prestigious Academie Nationale de Chirurgie and was a Fulbright and Markle scholar. He taught medicine at many institutions of higher learning across the United States, including the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and served as Chair of Surgery at the University of Chicago Medical School. Most recently, Dr. Menguy was a general surgery specialist at the University of Rochester, from which he retired in 1997.

Dr. Menguy was a brilliant man of many talents who will be dearly missed by his family and those with whom he shared intimate personal and professional relationships.

Interment will be private, per Rene's wishes. He lived by one motto: Semper Excelsior, ever upward.