Longtime Pacific Palisades resident Dr. William J. Dignam, dedicated obstetrician/gynecologist and involved family man, passed away peacefully on December 5. He was 86. Born in Manchester, New Hampshire on August 12, 1920, Dignam graduated from Dartmouth College and Medical School. He earned his medical degree from Harvard University and completed post-doctoral training there and also at the University of Kansas Medical Center and at Duke University Hospital. He served as a Navy lieutenant in the medical corps during World War II. Dignam met his future wife, Wini, in 1941 on the University of New Hampshire campus in Durham, where she was a junior and he was a senior at Dartmouth. The couple married in 1947 after Bill returned from the service. One of the founding members of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Dignam joined the UCLA faculty in 1953 and settled in the Palisades. He provided leadership to the department and to the university in many capacities, including serving as chairman of many committees. He was also a research associate at the University of Geneva and a visiting professor at Universite Rene Descartes in Paris, France and at the University of London. Known for his compassion, graceful and kind interaction with patients, students, staff and faculty, Dignam was a dedicated clinician. He was devoted to his patients and estimated that he had been the attending physician at 30,000 births. One of his great passions, and a particular focus of his work after attaining emeritus status in 1991, was medical student and resident education. He trained dozens of leading physicians in his field, many of whom came to UCLA specifically to learn from him. Dignam also held leadership positions in many national organizations, including serving as president and then chairman of the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology. He was the humble recipient of numerous international honors including Honorary President of the Society of Gynecology of France, Consultant to the Royal Australian College of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Charter Day speaker at the National Maternity Center in Dublin, Ireland. At UCLA, he was honored on several occasions for his teaching with the Sherman Mellinkoff Teaching Award, the Golden Apple Award, Excellence in Education Award, and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Award for Teaching and Mentoring. Last year he was honored with the ICON Award of the UCLA Center on Aging and by the creation of the William J. Dignam Award for Excellence in Obstetrics and Gynecology, which will be given annually to the outstanding graduating medical student. Dignam was a member of Corpus Christi Church and ‘practically lived at the park’ while involved with each of his four girls’ activities. He and Wini celebrated their 50th anniversary in 2002 with family and friends in New Hampshire. In an interview with the Palisadian-Post at the time, Bill shared his opinions on achieving a successful marriage. ‘In the first place, live long enough, and in the second place, just get the best girl in the world.’ Dignam is survived by his wife, Winifred Kennedy Dignam; his two sisters, Lenore Macartney and Margaret Donovan; his four daughters, Brett Dignam of Connecticut, Kevan Husky of Pacific Palisades, Erin Dignam of Los Angeles and Paris, and Meighan Garnsey of New Hampshire; and 14 grandchildren. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the UCLA Foundation for the William J. Dignam Memorial Fund, David Geffen School of Medicine, 10945 Le Conte Avenue, Suite 3132, Los Angeles, CA 90095.
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