The Passing of a Legend: Stanley J. Dudrick, M’61, RES’67

The Penn community and medical world are mourning the loss of Stanley J. Dudrick, M’61, RES’67, who died at the age of 84 at his home in Eaton, New Hampshire, following an illness.

Known as the “father of intravenous feeding,” Dr. Dudrick has been hailed as one of the most impactful physicians in the history of medicine, having invented total parenteral nutrition (TPN) — work which has since been credited with saving the lives of countless millions.

A native of Nanticoke, Pennsylvania, and graduate of Penn’s medical school, Dr. Dudrick was a 32-year-old surgical resident at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania when he invented TPN in 1967 alongside preeminent surgeon and then-chair of the Department of Surgery, Jonathan E. Rhoads, GRM’40, HON’60.

Dr. Dudrick’s development of the pioneering technique came in response to the frustration he experienced as a young cardiac surgeon when patients would go through successful surgeries, only to then die in recovery.

“I was terribly discouraged,” he told People in a 1978 interview. “Then, the chairman of the surgery department said that, if I analyzed it, I’d see they really died of starvation. They couldn’t eat, and they didn’t have enough reserve tissues to draw on.”

Dudrick’s solution to the issue was TPN, which rocked the medical world in the mid-to-late 1960s and has since become a standard of care for patients battling cancer, Crohn’s disease, and numerous other issues affecting the digestive system.

Dudrick would later become a professor of surgery at Penn, as well as chairman of the surgery department at Pennsylvania Hospital. Outside of Penn, he would go on to serve as surgery department chairman at the Yale University School of Medicine, director of the physician assistant program at Misericordia University, and professor of surgery at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.

Respected by colleagues, beloved by family and friends, and celebrated as one of his field’s most influential pioneers, Dr. Dudrick leaves behind a legacy of selflessness and tireless dedication.

“I want to leave something better behind when I go,” Dr. Dudrick told People in 1978, “rather than just practice medicine the way it has always been done.”