Wilson Randolph Tucker ’51
Randy died Apr. 11, 2000, from complications related to a stroke.
At Princeton, he majored in biology and was a member of the Cincinnati Club, the Premed Society, Cap and Gown, and the polo team.
His career in medicine was outstanding. At Rush Presbyterian-St. Luke's Medical Center in Chicago, Randy founded and, for many years, headed the hospital's office of research administration, which paved the way for significant progress in cardiology, immunology/microbiology, psychiatry, and the neurological sciences.
Randy had a rigorous mind that tackled quantifiable subjects. His family and colleagues said he had an insatiable thirst for understanding the world around him.
Randy is survived by his daughter, Anne, and his brother, David. The class salutes him.
The Class of 1951
Paw in print
September 2025
Stuntman Kent De Mond ’07 is on fire; Endowment tax fallout; Pilot Michael Holl ’03 trains Qataris
1 Response
Comments
David B. Knoll
4 Years AgoA Belated Thank You to Randy Tucker
In March of 1970, I became the third employee of what would become the Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. For the immediately prior four years I had worked for the Illinois Department of Business and Economic Development. Dean Richard Moy led the development of the school, deftly enlisting, specialty by specialty, teams of local practicing physicians to recruit department heads and advise on how best to turn Springfield's two fine hospitals into teaching hospitals. The rest, as they say, is history.
I don't recall which institutions, such as the Illinois Board of Higher Education and/or the Illinois General Assembly, were most instrumental in approving the new school, but the description of the need for a downstate medical school was made in a report of a committee headed by Randy Tucker. The report was often referred to as "The Tucker Report."
The Tucker Report argued that health care in central and southern Illinois would be improved by the presence of a downstate medical school and a focus on producing primary physicians. If I remember correctly, the report also recommended that the State of Illinois fund primary care residencies in the Chicago area as well.
An overview of the school today may be found here:
https://catalog.siu.edu/colleges/med.php
So, a belated "thank you," Randy, for your leadership role in medical education.