ND alumni, Nixon doctor dies
Special to The Observer
Dr. John Lungren, former president of the Notre Dame Alumni Association and longtime personal physician for President Richard Nixon died Monday of heart failure at Long Beach Memorial Hospital Medical Center in California. He was 83.
A 1938 graduate of Notre Dame with a bachelor's degree in chemistry, Lungren was a member of the Alumni Association's board of directors from 1966-1972 and its president in 1972-73, at which time he also served on the University's Board of Trustees. Lungren was aNotre Dame benefactor and all seven of his children attended either the University or Saint Mary's. He received the Award of the Year from the Notre Dame Club of Los Angeles in 1971.
Lungren earned his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1942 and, after taking further training at Los Angeles County Hospital, served in the Army during World War II. He was an infantry battalion surgeon during the Normandy invasion in 1944 and was awarded four battle stars and a Purple Heart.
Lungren joined Long Beach Memorial Medical Center in 1946 and stayed there until his retirement in 1987. He specialized in internal medicine and cardiology and served as the center's chief of staff from 1968-71.
He was President Nixon's personal physician form 1952-80 and is credited with helping save his life in 1974. Soon after resigning the presidency, Nixon experienced pain in his left leg caused by phlebitis he had developed years earlier. As the condition worsened, Lungren repeatedly advised Nixon to enter a hospital for treatment. After initially resisting, Nixon finally relented and days later a piece of a blood clot that formed in the left leg broke off and traveled through the bloodstream to damage his right lung. Dr. Eldon Hickman performed emergency surgery on the president to save his life.
Lungren is survived by his wife, Lorain; three sons, John, Daniel, a former U.S. congressman and attorney general of California, and Brian; four daughters, Christine, Loretta, Patricia and Elizabeth; and 16 grandchildren.
A rosary for Lungren will be prayed at 7 p.m. today at Saint Barnabas Catholic Church in Long Beach, and a funeral Mass will be celebrated there at 10 a.m. Friday.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be sent to the Lungren, Pre-Medical Scholarship Fund, University of Notre Dame, Ind., 46556; or the Long Beach memorial Heart Institute in care of the Memorial Medical Center Foundation, 2801 Atlantic Avenue, long Beach, Calif., 90806.
All News Stories for Thursday, March 2, 2000
