Morton Woolley, Class of 1945

Morton Woolley ’45 died Dec. 11, 2019. He was born in Atlanta in 1924. During the war, he entered the U.S. Naval Reserves. Mort then graduated from Otterbein with a degree in Biology in 1945. While at Otterbein, he was an active member on the men’s basketball team and in the Sigma Delta Phi fraternity. He then attended Loma Linda University School of Medicine and graduated as class president with a medical degree in 1951. He trained in surgery at the Los Angeles County Hospital, where he met his wife Jane, who was doing her intern year there.
Morton became a professor of surgery at the University of Southern California.
Mort was a Charter Member of APSA and served as APSA President 1978-1979. He served as surgeon-in-chief at the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles (CHLA) from 1975-1990. Under his leadership, CHLA developed into an international referral center for all specialties in surgery, and a leading training program in the field. He was also active in the major professional societies in pediatric surgery, including serving as president of the Pacific Association of Pediatric Surgeons in 1991-1992. In 1977 Morton authored one of the most profound articles in pediatric surgery: a two-page summary of a questionnaire sent to parents who had the death of a child, published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery.
Mort is survived by his wife, Jane, and children Cynthia, Douglas, and James Woolley.