"Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away
into the next room."
— Henry Scott-Holland
John A. McDougall, M.D. — In Memoriam
•• John A. McDougall, M.D. Memorial Page.
It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of John McDougall, M.D., a visionary
physician and author, and family man.
(17 May 1947 – 22 Jun 2024; aged 77) — COD was not given.
He is survived by his wife Mary, his children, Patrick, Heather, and Craig McDougall, and seven
grandchildren.
See more about Dr. McDougall here. (an 'official' obituary is not available,
afawk)
Below you will find a celebration of his Life.
The information was gathered from around the InterWebs, and is accurate as far as we know.
Love · Respect · Gratitude
Dr. McDougall was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, mentor and friend. Our
condolences go out to his wife, Mary, his children, Patrick, Heather, and Craig, and John's
family, relatives, friends, acquaintances, associates, and admirers, the latter consisting of
MANY hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of thankful and grateful people around the World.
This is John's true Legacy, accompanied by a profound legacy in his life's work.
Born in Detroit, Michigan, and raised in Plymouth, Michigan, John was the eldest of four siblings. His father, John, was a designer at the Ford Motor Co., and his mother, Betty, was a homemaker. At Michigan State University, he initially studied hotel and restaurant management, until his fateful stroke at age 18, from which he recovered, and which rerouted his goals and led him to pre-medical studies. After college, he enrolled in the university’s College of Human Medicine. It was there that he met his future wife, Mary, a surgical nurse. The pair got married after a whirlwind three-month courtship.
In 1972, the couple relocated to Honolulu, so that McDougall could do his internship at Queens Medical Center. He accepted a position at the Hamakua Sugar Plantation, where for three years, he cared for the workers and their families. It was in this job that McDougall discovered a connection between diet and disease, when he noticed that the elderly patients who followed traditional Asian diets were in far better health than their children and grandchildren, who ate more Americanized foods.
McDougall entered the University of Hawaii Residency Program. He immersed himself in research, reading scientific journals, discovering that other doctors had come to same conclusion he had: that diet could contribute directly to many common illnesses. He reached out to some of these doctors, who became mentors: Dr. Denis Burkett, Dr. Roy Swank, Dr. Walter Willett, and Nathan Pritikin.
McDougall developed his diet, composed of 90% starchy plant foods and 10% fruits and vegetables. He wrote his first book, "The McDougall Plan", a New York Times national bestseller in 1985, with his wife, who contributed recipes. The diet rejects all animal products as well as cooking oils, processed food, alcoholic beverages and caffeinated drinks. His critics categorized his program as a low-fat fad diet, but his thousands of successes in helping people achieve and maintain Health using "food as medicine" proved them wrong time and again. His vision of a plant-based diet is gaining increasing credibility, especially in treating Prostate Cancer, other cancers, Type II Diabetes, Obesity, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Kidney Diseases, and Autoimmune Diseases, among many others.
The world will remember him as the man who revolutionized modern healthcare and championed dietary therapy.
In 1986, he established the McDougall Program at St. Helena Hospital in the Napa Valley, California. It was a 12-day, medically supervised lifestyle program. Later he established Dr. McDougall’s Right Foods, a line of prepared soups that are sold in almost 4,000 stores. In 2002, he moved his program from St. Helena Hospital to the Flamingo Resort in Santa Rosa, California.
He retired from clinical practice in 2018, but his program continued on, transitioning in March 2020, with the onset of COVID, to an online format. Afterward, he continued with video interviews and other work. All of the information needed to follow Dr. McDougall's diet is offered free on his website. (a testament to his true self and work)
The gauntlet that is Dr. McDougall's work as been taken on by others, and will continue to be expanded and built upon, helping to make people healthier, and thereby happier, and the world a better place.
So many of us, untold numbers, owe John McDougall, M.D. a large, if not huge, debt of gratitude and thanks for all he has done for us through his Life's Work. All done by him in the spirit of kindness, caring, compassion, empathy, decency, and humanity. Since he was human, he most likely was not "perfect", but he was more than perfect enough.
We hope to one day see John McDougall, M.D. recognized for his contributions to Humanity, and posthumously awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, and other honors of similar stature. These in recognition of his numerous achievements in regard to bettering Human Health and Well Being — relieving poor health, pain, suffering, agony, misery, and death — his Activist work in that regard around the World, and the Happiness, Joy, Bliss, Contentment, and Inner Peace that achieving Health Restoration can help create, for the afflicted, and their loved ones.
On behalf of the Royal We, we have declared, proclaimed, and designated John McDougall's birthday, May 17, as International John McDougall Day. [ Make It So! ]
#RIP #RestInPeace #RequiescatInPace
#ThankYou Gracias Merci Grazie Danke Spasiba
Ave Atque Vale
For John's loved ones:
Stop All The Clocks —— Funeral Blues
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone.
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.
Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling in the sky the message He is Dead,
Put crêpe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.
He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever, I was wrong.
The stars are not wanted now; put out every one,
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun.
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood;
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
— W. H. Auden
Death Is Nothing At All
Death is nothing at all.
It does not count.
I have only slipped away into the next room.
Nothing has happened.
Everything remains exactly as it was.
I am I, and you are you,
and the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged.
Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.
Call me by the old familiar name.
Speak of me in the easy way which you always used.
Put no difference into your tone.
Wear no forced air of solemnity or sorrow.
Laugh as we always laughed at the little jokes that we enjoyed together.
Play, smile, think of me, pray for me.
Let my name be ever the household word that it always was.
Let it be spoken without an effort, without the ghost of a shadow upon it.
Life means all that it ever meant.
It is the same as it ever was.
There is absolute and unbroken continuity.
What is this death but a negligible accident?
Why should I be out of mind because I am out of sight?
I am but waiting for you, for an interval,
somewhere very near,
just round the corner.
All is well.
Nothing is hurt; nothing is lost.
One brief moment and all will be as it was before.
How we shall laugh at the trouble of parting when we meet again!
— Henry Scott-Holland
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