William Parson, 89; Doctor Revamped Uganda Med School
William Parson, 89, a doctor and teacher who revamped Uganda’s medical school and served briefly as the personal physician to strongman Idi Amin, died Nov. 25 in Seattle from internal bleeding after a heart attack.
Raised in the Bronx, N.Y., Parson attended Columbia College and Columbia University’s medical school.
At 35, he was named chairman of the University of Virginia’s department of internal medicine, a position he held until he and his wife moved to Uganda’s capital, Kampala, in 1966.
He chaired the department of medicine at Makerere University, and established the area’s first residency program.
Shortly after the 1971 coup that brought Amin to power, Parson was named his personal physician. Parson left Uganda the next year after Amin started expelling the Asian community.
Parson went on to hold teaching posts at UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins and Stanford. He spent several years as a professor or advisor to universities in Indonesia, Zaire, China and Taiwan.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
