Dr. R. Beverly Raney, chairman emeritus of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, died Thursday after a brief illness at UNC Hospitals. He was 84.
Raney was the first chairman of the UNC orthopaedic division, a position he held from 1952 to 1967. He was also responsible for establishing UNC’s residency program in orthopaedics. Raney’s contributions to the School of Medicine were recognized by a Distinguished Service Award in 1972 and a visiting professorship bearing his name. A portrait of him hangs in the Raney Orthopaedic Library in the orthopaedic clinic of UNC Hospitals.
“A man’s humanity is harder to measure than his scholarship, but certainly few physicians have been more genuinely, unselfishly and totally concerned with the welfare of their patients and friends than Beverly Raney,” said Dr. frank Wilson Jr., professor and chief of the UNC medical school’s division of orthopaedics.
“His gentleness and understanding are legendary among those whose lives he has touched,” Wilson said. “If scholarship was one cornerstone of his life, compassion was the other. It is people like Beverly Raney who have made surgery as much a humanity as a technical discipline.”
Raney, a Raleigh native, earned his undergraduate degree from UNC in 1926. He graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1930 and trained at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. He became the first resident in orthopaedic surgery at Duke University Medical Center.
He remained in Durham to enter private practice and stayed with the Duke faculty through the residency program. He also had ties to the Cerebral Palsy, Lincoln and Watts hospitals.
Raney was instrumental in the development of Clinics and programs for crippled children across the state. He visited clinics in Elizabeth City, Jacksonville and Tarboro for more than 25 years.
Raney’s writings, which include 33 articles and book reviews, are well known in his field. In 1937, he was the co-author of the first edition of the “Handbook of Orthopaedic Surgery,” now in its 10th edition.
He served as a member of the editorial board of the “Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery” for 10 years and later as a member and chairman of its Board of Trustees. His last book, “Useful Orthopaedic Eponyms,” was published in 1987.
Raney belonged to numerous professional organizations, including the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, of which he was vice president in 1962 He was a member of the American Orthopaedic Association and served as a chairman and a member of several of its committees. He was among the founders of the N.C. Orthopaedic Association and served terms as its secretary and president.
Survivors are his wife, Carolyn F. Raney of Chapel Hill, and two sons, Dr. R. Beverly Raney Jr. of Houston, Texas, and Thomas Blount Fuller Raney of Chapel Hill.
Funeral and burial were Saturday.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the Raney Orthopaedic Library in the Division of Orthopaedics.
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