Alvin B. C. Knudson; Doctor Improved Treatment for Veterans

Alvin B. C. Knudson, 81, the physician who for 23 years was national director of the Veterans Administration’s Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Service, supervising the agency’s 165 agencies in hospitals around the country. With the advice of such experts as Drs. Karl Menninger and Howard Rusk, Knudson restored to productive lives hundreds of thousands of American soldiers injured in World War II, Korea and Vietnam. Unique to his service from 1948 to 1971 was a philosophy that the patient needed to be deeply involved in planning his or her recovery. With the prosthetics, drugs and physical therapy involved in the scientific aspects of recovery, Knudson also brought in teams of psychologists, vocational experts and prospective employers. Before his tenure, the VA had served primarily as a source of custodial care. In Fairfax, Va., on Thursday of cardiopulmonary failure.