Person:Isaac Tullis (5)

From The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN, p. 14 About July 12, 1954 UT MEDICAL JOB GOES TO DR. I. FRANK TULLIS Young Specialist Succeeds Late Dr. Sanford HE TAKES OVER AT ONCE

Dr. I. Frank Tullis, young Memphis specialist in internal medicine, yesterday was appointed to succeed the late Dr. Conley Hall Sanford as professor of medicine and chief of the Division of Medicine at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine.

The appointment, effective immediately, was announced by Dr. O. W. Hyman, vice president of the University in charge of the medical units and dean of the College of Medicine.

Dr. Tullis, 37, is a graduate of Central High School and received both his bachelor of science and doctor of medicine degrees from UT. He earned one of the highest grade averages ever made during his four-year medical course and received the Faculty Award for scholarship and personal qualifications.

Born in McComb, Miss. He was born in McComb, Miss., his family moving to Memphis when he was a young boy. His father, the late I. F. Tullis, was employed for many years by the Illinois Central Railroad. His mother lives at 241 South Cleveland.

Dr. Tullis served his internship at John Gaston Hospital. From 1942 until 1945 he was in the Army of the United States as chief of field party for the Institute of Inter-American Affairs. The unit worked with Central American countries to develop health and sanitation programs. He was discharged with the rank of lieutenant colonel and took his residency at the Gaston Hospital. In 1948 he was named an instructor in medicine. He was advanced to assistant professor in 1952.

Wife a Central Graduate He is the husband of the former Miss Virginia Samuels, whose mother, Mrs. T. D. Samuels, lives at 1286 Overton Park. Mrs. Tullis also is a graduate of Central High School and attended Memphis State College.

Dr. Tullis is a diplomate of the American Board of Internal Medicine and a fellow of the American College of Physicians. His membership in other organizations includes Alpha Kappa Kappa Medical Fraternity, Alpha Omega Alpha Honorary Medical Fraternity, American College of Physicians, Memphis and Shelby County Medical Society, Tennessee State Medical Association, Southern Medical Association, and American Medical Association.

Dr. and Mrs. Tullis have three children and live at 4339 Sequoia. He will continue to practice medicine.

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Biography from Tennessee Lives, 1971, compiled by William T. Alderson. Published by the Historical Record Association, Hopkinsville, KY. page 409:

TULLIS, ISAAC FRANK, physician and university professor, 951 Court Avenue, Memphis. The son of Isaac Frank and Marie (Stuart) Tullis, he is of English extraction, and was born in McComb, Mississippi on June 16 [actually 17], 1917. Dr. Tullis earned the Bachelor of Science degree at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and further prepared for his career at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis where he was awarded the Doctor of Medicine degree. On April 11, 1941, he married the former Selma Virginia Samuels of Memphis, Tennessee, and they are the parents of two sons and one daughter: Kenneth Frank, who was born on March 13, 1944; Katherine Virginia, born on April 28, 1948; and Thomas Stuart, whose birth date is April 16, 1952. A physician, Dr. Tullis served his internship at John Gaston Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee during 1941, and then entered military service. Upon his return to civilian life in 1946, he began his residency at that hospital, and he completed it in 1948. At that time, Dr. Tullis joined the faculty of the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis, where he rose in rank from instructor to professor; served as chairman of the Department of Medicine from 1954 until 1964; and has been director of the Clinical Research Center since 1964. He has been a member of the Board of Trustees of the American College of Cardiology, was elected to membership in the Alpha Kappa Kappa medical fraternity, officiated as President of the Memphis Academy of Internal Medicine during 1957 and 1958; and held the office of President of the Tennessee Society of Internal Medicine from 1964 until 1966. Dr. Tullis is also actively affiliated with the Memphis Heart Association as a current member of the Board of Directors, and as its 1970-1971 President. During World War II, he served his country in the United States Army from 1942 until 1946, and held the post of Chief of Field Party of the Institute of Inter-American Affairs in Honduras, Central America. Politically, Dr. Tullis is aligned with the Republican Party. He is a member of the Baptist Church, and serves as deacon at the Bellevue Church in Memphis.

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from History of Medicine in Memphis, by Marcus J. Stewart and William T. Black, 1971. Published by McCowat-Mercer Press, Jackson, TN, for the Memphis and Shelby Co. Medical Society. pages 196-197:

Dr. Sanford's successor [as Chairman of the Dept of Medicine of the Univ of Tenn. Medical School] was Dr. I. Frank Tullis, who went to work in earnest to build up the research aspect of the Department of Medicine, and to beef up the faculty with full-time and part-time physicians from all over the country. To his great credit, he broke up much of the provincialism of the department and soon had excellent professors in full time charge of the sections of gastroenterology, endocrinology, cardiology, rheumatology, metabolic diseases, neurology and various offshoots therefrom. Hematology was at that time and had been for many years under the direction of a worldwide authority, Dr. L. W. Diggs, who is too big a man to bury in one paragraph, and concerning whom we shall talk more.

Under Dr. Tullis research was stimulated with increasing tempo and valuable contributions to progress in medicine were made during the decade in which he was chairman of the department. Important studies were finalized concerning the action of oral hypoglycemic agents; the pathological physiology of alcoholism was probed and more effective methods of treatment explored; numerous studies of the action of new drugs on rheumatoid arthritis were conducted; and nitrogen balance studies helped point the way to safe methods of extremely rapid weight reduction. In fact the long continued complex research on obesity attracted considerable national attention, especially when a perfectly normal baby was born of an obese woman who throughout her entire pregnancy had consumed naught but a well known low calorie beverage [Metrecal] of balanced formula-- an accolade indeed to the safety of such a program. It is said that no child was ever studied so minutely by so many experts so immediately after birth.

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Name: Tullis, I Frank Birth - Death: 1917- Accession Number: 4301956 Source Citation: American Men & Women of Science. A biographical directory of today's leaders in physical, biological, and related sciences. 12th edition, Physical & Biological Sciences. Seven volumes. New York: R.R. Bowker Co., 1971.(AmMWSc 12P)

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Obituary from The Commercial Appeal, Memphis, TN, p. B4, Sept. 21, 2000 'One of the most outstanding internal medicine doctors in Memphis' By Kevin McKenzie, The Commercial Appeal

Dr. I. Frank Tullis Jr. practiced internal medicine for decades, researched topics ranging from the heart to obesity, and helped shape the University of Tennessee medical school in Memphis at a key period in its history.

From the beginning - Dr. Tullis in 1939 graduated first in his class with both bachelor's and doctor of medicine degrees from UT - he was a standout.

"He was well-respected and one of the most outstanding internal medicine doctors in Memphis, beginning early in his career and throughout," said Dr. James Gibb Johnson, associate vice president of health affairs for UT.

Dr. Tullis died of heart failure Tuesday at Baptist Memorial Hospital East. He was 83.

Isaac Frank Tullis Jr., was born in McComb, Miss. During World War II he was a lieutenant colonel in the Army and served in the medical corps as "chief of field party, Institute of InterAmerican Affairs" in the Central American nation of Honduras.

Following the war, he practiced internal medicine in Memphis, specializing in cardiology for years but also expanding knowledge of nutrition and weight loss with ground-breaking research in the 1960s. In 30 years beginning in 1947, he authored or helped write more than two dozen articles in medical journals.

He joined the UT College of Medicine faculty as an instructor in 1948, and from 1954 to 1964 served as the chairman of its Department of Medicine. He then became director of the university's Clinical Research Center until 1971.

"He was chairman of the Department of Medicine at a very important phase in the development of the University of Tennessee," Johnson said. "He was an outstanding man."

Dr. Tullis also held important posts at area hospitals, including physician-in-chief for the City of Memphis Hospitals from 1954 to 1964 and medical director of the Crittenden Primary Care Center in West Memphis 1978-83.

He was a member of a number of medical associations and served as president or on the board of several others.

Dr. Tullis, the widower of Virginia Tullis and the husband of Verna S. Tullis, leaves a daughter, Katherine Tullis Ledbetter, of Memphis; two sons, Dr. Kenneth Frank Tullis, of Memphis, and Dr. Thomas Stuart Tullis, of Boston; a stepdaughter, Sandra Firestone, of Athens, Ala.; a stepson, Andrew Schippers, of Memphis; a sister, Virginia Tullis Walsh of Memphis, and five grandchildren.

Services will be at noon Friday at Memorial Park Funeral Home with burial at Memorial Park Cemetery. The family requests that memorials be sent to the American Heart Association and the Church Health Center.

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