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2013 ISAKOS Congress Wrap Up

ISAKOS Honorary

Members

John Feagin, MD

Written by: John A. Bergfeld,
ISAKOS Past President (2005–2007)

It is an honor to welcome Dr. John Feagin, USA into
the fellowship of Honorary Member of International
Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery and Orthopaedic

Sports Medicine. “He who desires to practice surgery
must first go to war”. That is a Hippocrates quote and
01
certainly applies to John Feagin.
In 1979 John was faced with the decision as to

John was born in San Antonio, Texas. Following whether to move up to the rank of Army General and
an outstanding high school student career at Texas become an administrator or retire from active duty
and continue to do orthopaedic surgery. John chose
Military Academy, he went on to West Point where
he graduated in 1955. He then served active duty to retire from the Army and went to Jackson Hole,
for 2 years before attending Duke University Medical Wyoming to follow his passion of skiing and practice

School, graduating in 1961 with honors. John was sports orthopaedic surgery.
the first active duty Army officer to attend medical
John continued his academic association with Duke
school. To get the Army to recognize that a West University where he eventually moved and has
Point graduate would be a gung ho medical Army
been appointed Clinical Professor of Orthopaedic
officer was no small effort.
Surgery. Currently he serves as emeritus professor of

Upon completion of medical school, John served an Orthopaedic Surgery at Duke University and Director
orthopaedic residency at Walter Reed Army Hospital of the Duke University Feagin Leadership Program.

and then volunteered for a tour of duty in Vietnam. He In addition to John’s academic career and
returned the United States Military Academy where
he served as a staff orthopaedic surgeon and team contributions to surgery of the knee, John was a
founding member and eventually President of the
physician to the West Point Cadets.
American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine.

Following his tour of duty at the Military Academy, He has served on the Board of Trustees of the
John did a fellowship in joint replacement with Sir United States Military Academy. He has delivered

John Charnley and returned to the United States to 17 endowed named lectureships around the world.
serve as the Chief of the US Army’s Joint Replacement He was awarded the Distinguished Graduate of the

program at Lederman Hospital. John then returned United States Military Academy. John has also served
to West Point as the Commanding officer at the as team physician for the US Ski Team.
Kellerman Army Hospital at West Point. During this
In addition to all of this work, John, along with
tenure, he oversaw the introduction of women to
the military academy and set the standards for the Werner M̈eller from Basel, Switzerland, fathered
the exchange of traveling fellows, initially between
women’s participation in athletics and the physical ESSKA and AOSSM and now the exchange between
conditioning demanded of all West Point Cadets.
AOSSM, ESSKA, APKASS and SLARD.
During John’s tenure as team physician at West
His innovativeness also is responsible for starting the
Point, he recognized the importance of the anterior Anterior Cruciate Ligament Study Group. He chaired
cruciate ligament in the athlete’s knee in spite of
the Godfathers of orthopaedics telling us that it the first meeting held in 1975 while John was still at
West Point.
wasn’t important. John presented the results of his
anterior cruciate ligament primary repairs in 1972 at John now divides his time between Duke University in

the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, North Carolina and Vail, Colorado where he lives with
a follow up which proved that the primary repair of his wife Marty and their families.

the ligament was only temporarily successful. This Truly John is an icon of orthopaedic Sports Medicine,
work of John’s set the stage for the substitution of
the injured anterior cruciate ligament which is the an innovative surgeon, team physician, mentor
to many of us. ISAKOS is honored to welcome
standard of care today.
John to a well-deserved Honorary membership in
International Society of Arthroscopy, Knee Surgery
01 John Feagin & John Bergfeld
and Orthopaedic Sports Medicine.

20 ISAKOS NEWSLETTER 2013: Volume II