Dr. James H. “Red” Duke, Jr. was born in Ennis, Texas in 1928. His father employed a very effective philosophy of raising a son: keep the boy busy and let him learn the principles and values of daily work discipline and respect for others. He worked in a series of manual labor jobs and was active in his church and the Boy Scouts, earning the rank of Eagle Scout, which he credits with shaping his life’s principles.
Following graduation from Texas A&M, where he was a yell leader, he was commissioned in the U.S. Army and his battalion was soon deployed as the Second American Division of NATO. Upon his discharge, he enrolled and graduated from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Pursuing his lifelong desire to become a physician, he graduated from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas in 1960. Later, he joined a medical consortium to assist in developing a fledgling medical school in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.
After two years in Afghanistan, Red joined the faculty at the new University of Texas Medical School at Houston and started the trauma service at Hermann Hospital, which led to the Life Flight helicopter service, significantly improving patient care and outcomes. Today, Memorial Hermann Hospital’s Level 1 Trauma Center is one of the largest in the nation. His syndicated television program, Dr. Red Duke’s Health Reports, on television for fifteen years, brought national attention to the Texas Medical Center.
Dr. Duke’s interest in wildlife conservation compelled him to form the Texas Bighorn Society to assist the Texas Park and Wildlife Department in restoring wild bighorn sheep to their native habitat. Now, up to 2,000 sheep occupy the mountains of West Texas. He has served on the boards and as president of both the Foundation of North American Wild Sheep and the Boone and Crockett Club, which Theodore Roosevelt founded to promote the conservation of wildlife and habitat.
He is grateful to have been privileged to be a part of so many meaningful initiatives, including helping raise four interesting children.
* Publisher’s Note: Dr. James “Red” Duke passed away in August 2015. His remarkable spirit and accomplishments, especially within the medical community, live on through his family and many friends. He is greatly missed.