Dr. Thomas S. Durant Thomas S. Durant, MD, is currently the assistant director of the Massachusetts General Hospital where he has dedicated more than thirty years of his life to helping others. Among his many notable achievements are having served as Chief Public Health Advisor in Saigon, Vietnam, served on the Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee on Refugees and Civilian Casualties in Vietnam, and having aided refugees throughout the world. He has volunteered in the Balkans, Somalia, Iraq, Northern Ireland, Bangladesh, and Central America, to name a few, and his commitment to helping others has been felt across the globe.
Dr. Durant earned his BS from Boston College and his MD from Georgetown University. He completed his residence training at Boston City Hospital in pathology and medicine and specialized in obstetrics and gynecology. He established his own private practice until 1966 when he was asked to go to Saigon as Chief Public Health Advisor.
In the world of academia, Dr. Durant has held many positions, such as clinical associate and assistant clinical professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the Boston University School of Medicine, instructor at Tufts Medical School, and instructor and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. He was also appointed as Acting Assistant Chief of Obstetrics & Gynecology, at University Hospital in Boston.
Throughout his tenure as a physician, Dr. Durant has served on numerous committees, such as the Massachusetts Hospital Association, the American Society of Law and Medicine, the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Joint Office of International Activities, and the Massachusetts Medical Society. He also served on the Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee on Refugees and Civilian Casualties in Vietnam in 1969, on Speaker O'Neill's Committee on Cambodian Refugees at the Cambodian border in 1979, and at the Abdul Aziz Hospital in Saudi Arabia in 1980. He has participated in trade missions for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts with Ireland and the U.K. in 1994, and with Taiwan and Vietnam in 1995. He also helped with United Nations elections by assisting at the International Polling Office in Cambodia in 1993, as an observer in the South African elections in 1994, and as an election officer for OSCE in Bosnia in 1996.
Volunteering is an integral part of Dr. Durant's life. As a physician, he has aided in camp hospitals in Cambodia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia Iraq, and Vietnam. He has assisted Kurdish and Rwandan refugees, and spent much time in the Balkans. He has helped in Southeast Asia, Northern Ireland, Mozambique, and assisted many in Central America after the Hurricane Mitch Disaster in 1998.
Additionally, he has held, and currently holds many board positions. He was a member of the Board of Trustees at Emmanuel College, an advisory member of the Free Afghan Alliance, the Board of Directors of Freedom Medicine (Afghan Relief Organization), the Board of Directors of the Catholic Charities, and the Editorial Board of WCVB-TV in Boston. He is currently on the Board of Directors of the American Refugee Committee and of the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce and is the President of the Irish American Partnership, Boston Chapter.
Awards and honors include his Doctorate of Humane Letters from Suffolk University, Doctorate of Laws from Emmanuel College, the William V. McKenney Award of Excellence from Boston College, and the 1995 Humanitarian Award from the United Nations Hospitality Committee. He received the Man of the Year Award from the National Conference for Community and Justice, the Operation A.B.L.E. (Ability Based on Long Experience) Award at the World Trade Center, and an Award for Courageous Service from the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur all in 1999.
Overall, Dr. Durant is known for his commitment to humanitarian aid and his desire to help people. He is a leader in his own community as well as throughout the world.
For more on Dr. Durant, see: http://www.mgh.harvard.edu/pubaffairs/issues/051101Moakleyaward.htm.
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