Dr. James Raymond Shaw has been assigned from the United States Public Health Service to serve as chief of the Branch of Health of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Secretary of the Interior Douglas McKay announced today.
Dr. Shaw comes to his new assignment from the position of Chief of the Division of Hospitals, Bureau of Medical Services in the PHS. In this position, which he has held for the past year, he has been responsible for the supervision and management of the entire system of PHS hospitals and outpatient clinics.
As chief of the Indian Bureau's Branch of Health, he will assume similar responsibilities for supervising the administration of 59 Indian Service hospitals in 15 States and Alaska. In addition, his responsibilities will include supervision of the public health phases of the Indian Bureau’s health program.
Born in Yale, Michigan in 1908, Dr. Shaw graduated from Michigan State Normal School and was a high school teacher for three years before entering the University of Michigan Medical School in 1932. He served an internship at the New Orleans PHS hospital in 1936 and was admitted to the commissioned corps of the PHS in 1938.
After two years of PHS service in Washington, he was granted a fellowship at the Mayo Clinic for postgraduate study. From 1941 to 1944 he served as chief of the Department of Medicine in San Francisco PHS hospital and subsequently was assigned as district medical officer, Coast Guard, Long Beach, Calif.
In 1945 Dr. Shaw was promoted to senior surgeon and concurrently was elected a Fellow of the American College of Physicians. That same year he was advanced to the position of medical officer in charge of Los Angeles and San Pedro clinics, and remained there until 1949. From 1949 to 1952 he was medical officer in charge of Detroit PHS hospital.
Dr. Shaw succeeds Dr. Fred Foard, another PHS career officer, who retired last October,. Dr. Burnet M. Davis, who has been serving in the interim as acting chief of the Bureau's Branch of Health, was recently reassigned to the PHS’s Division of International Health.
