The Dr. Thomas A. Dooley Award - 2019: Kevin R. Kerrigan, ’72, MD, FACS

2019: Kevin R. Kerrigan, ’72, MD, FACS

For his work caring for poor and vulnerable patients in South America, Africa, Melanesia, and the Middle East, Kevin R. Kerrigan ’72, MD, FACS is presented with the Dr. Thomas A. Dooley Award.

Inspired by Dr. Dooley’s books about his experiences in Southeast Asia, Kerrigan developed an early interest in medicine. After graduating from Notre Dame, he entered medical school at the University of South Florida. He then received post-graduate training in surgery at Emory University and the Naval Regional Medical Center in San Diego.

Along the way, Kerrigan became an agnostic and lost his enthusiasm for using his skills to help the poor. During his last year in medical school, he took an elective in tropical medicine at a hospital in Ecuador. There, he was re-introduced to Christ and reaffirmed the direction of his life.

Kerrigan moved his family to the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador for six years, where he served the indigent population at a 35-bed jungle hospital. Later, he moved to a 220-bed facility in Kenya, where he served for two years.

Kerrigan returned to the United States to complete his Navy career. After retiring, he accepted assignments to teach and cover surgical services, traveling to Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Zambia, and Iraq. He has written about his experiences in two books, Searching Heart, Testing Mind and God in a Bottle.

“Dr. Thomas A. Dooley was my inspiration for entering medicine. As a 13 year-old, I read his trilogy about his experiences treating the poor in Southeast Asia and immediately I was sold.”