Dr. John M. Driscoll, Jr.

Dr. John M. Driscoll, Jr., aged 85, died peacefully at his home in Oradell, N.J., on September 9, 2022. He leaves a rich legacy of family, friends, and lasting contributions to the many communities to which he belonged—all of which serve as shining examples of his fundamental kindness, boundless generosity, and abiding Catholic Christian faith. Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to John and Margaret Driscoll, John grew up in Manhasset. N.Y., where he was a member of the first graduating class of St. Mary’s High School – and would years later be an inaugural inductee into the school’s Hall of Fame. John attended Hamilton College, where he was a member of the varsity lacrosse and basketball teams and was elected to the Pentagon Honor Society. John attended Wake Forest’s Bowman Gray School of Medicine on a U.S. Navy scholarship, before beginning his residency at the University of Pittsburgh’s Childrens Hospital, where he met a fellow resident, Yvonne Thel, M.D., who would become his beloved wife of 58 years and mother of their six children. In 1966, the Navy sent John to Vietnam—but not before he went AWOL from Ft. Sam Houston in Texas to travel to Washington, D.C., to see Yvonne, who had just given birth to their second child. Having successfully avoided capture and court martial by his own government, John shipped out to Quang Tin Province, while Yvonne completed her residency at Washington Children’s—as chief resident, no less—while caring for their two children under the age of two. John returned home from Vietnam in 1967 as a Lieutenant Commander—having been awarded a Bronze Star for overseeing the construction of a new hospital and providing health care services for 355,000 Vietnamese civilians who previously had none—and resumed his civilian medical career. In 1971, following completion of his pediatric residency, John joined the faculty of the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the staff of Babies Hospital at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center, where he would spend the rest of his career. John’s specialty was perinatal medicine, and he worked with a team of dedicated doctors and nurses, breaking new ground in the care of premature and high-risk infants. The clinical care and research that John and his colleagues provided dramatically improved the odds that the infants they cared for would not only survive but thrive. John helped establish Columbia’s neonatal intensive care unit and was its Director from 1973 to 1992. One of John’s greatest sources of professional pride was the Hospital’s annual Alumni Day, where “graduates” would return to see the doctors and nurses who had cared for them. In addition to this annual celebration, there were countless instances in his life when—at sporting events, parties, or other chance encounters—John would meet the parents of a child he had cared for years before. Their gratitude was palpable. It is only fitting, therefore, that the neonatal intensive care unit that John helped establish is now named the John M. Driscoll Jr. Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. John also founded, and was the first Chair of, the Neonatal Ethics Committee at Babies Hospital, one of the first pediatric ethics committees in the United States. John continued to chair the committee (or its successor) until 1996. In 1992, John was named the acting Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics and Director of the Pediatric Service at Babies Hospital, and thereafter, following a nationwide search, John was named the Reuben S. Carpentier Professor of Pediatrics and Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Director of the Pediatric Service of Babies and Childrens’ Hospital. In 1997, he was elected President of the Medical Board of Presbyterian Hospital and following the merger of the Presbyterian Hospital and The New York Hospital, he served as the first President of the Medical Board of the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He played a leadership role in the building of the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital, which opened in 2003 and now ranks as one of the pre-eminent children’s hospitals in the nation. In 2007, he stepped down as Chairman of Pediatrics and Pediatrician-in-Chief at the Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital after nearly forty years of service. The hundreds of physicians, nurses, and other medical professionals he trained and mentored over those four decades years carry on his legacy of compassionate, family-centered pediatric care. John was a member of the Executive Committee of the Perinatal Section of the American Academy of Pediatrics from 1987 until 1995 and was its Chair from 1993 to 1995. John served on the board of the Lucille Packard Foundation for Children’s Health and the Curran Center for American Catholic Studies at Fordham University and was a fellow in the Division of Medical Ethics at Harvard Medical School. He was fortunate to receive many awards during his career, among them several Outstanding Teacher Awards and a Distinguished Service Award from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons; the Arnold P. Gold Foundation Award for Humanism in Medicine; and “A Brighter Tomorrow for Our Children Award” from the Hope and Heroes Foundation, a Physician of the Year Award. John was especially proud of the honorary degree bestowed on him by his alma mater, Hamilton College, in 2001. John is survived by his loving wife, Yvonne, his children, Anne (Robert St. Peter, M.D.), John (Ann Mathews), Bill (Anne), Margaret (Matthew Baltay), Kevin (Katherine), Michael (Lauren), and sixteen grandchildren who knew him as “Grandy”: Claire and William St. Peter; Harriet Driscoll; Meghan, Grace, and Maeve Driscoll; Thomas, Luke, Charles, and Matthew Baltay; Declan, Mairead, and Seamus Driscoll; and Keelin, Elery, and Aidan Driscoll. John was the oldest of four children and his brother Peter (Kathy, deceased) survives. John was predeceased by his parents, John and Margaret; and his sisters, Mary (Edward, now living in Florida) and Sheila (Albert). John was a longtime parishioner of St. Joseph’s Church of Oradell/New Milford, where he served in a range of capacities, including basketball coach, parish council chair, and most recently as chair of the school board. He was also a Knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta. John’s warm smile and gentle manner, combined with his genuine concern for others made him a friend to all he met. John was man of deep and abiding faith—a faith that he truly lived each day of his life. He was so dearly loved by so many, and he will be deeply missed. Visiting hours will be on Thursday, September 15 from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. and from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at Basralian Funeral Home, 559 Kinderkamack Rd. in Oradell, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at St. Joseph’s Church in Oradell at 10 a.m. on Friday, September 16. In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to John M. Driscoll, Jr. M.D. Children’s Fund for the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University Medical Center. Please visit https://www.givenow.columbia.edu/# and enter “Driscoll” in the search field to make a donation.