Class of 1970 Commemorative Biographical Book

J O H N O ’ S H E A

Narrative: John Stewart O’Shea was born in Baltimore in 1944, and spent his first 26 years there. His father John Albert O’Shea was a legal aid attorney (co-founding Legal Aid Baltimore in 1929 at age 25) and real estate investor, and his mother Coralie Wiegman O’Shea a social worker (in charge of East Baltimore Social Services by her mid-20s). He had no siblings. After graduating from Loyola High School (now Loyola Blakefield) and Loyola College (now University), as you know he received his M.D. in 1970 from Hopkins, and the year before married his classmate Patricia Allen. Pat was born in Syracuse in 1944 and had graduated from Le Moyne College there. John then completed a pediatric residency and ambulatory pediatric fellowship (as a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar) at Duke University, while Pat was a pathology resident there. Pat and he next spent 16 years at the then new medical school at Brown University, she as a pediatric pathologist and he as director of ambulatory pediatrics, where they were based at Rhode Island Hospital. He was in charge of the Rhode Island Hospital Child Abuse Team from 1975 until 1980, and established the Rhode Island Poison Center in 1980. In 1979 John arranged for the Children’s Code Commission to be established by the Rhode Island legislature. Ever since, it has assured the appropriateness of all legislation proposed in that state relating to the health, education, welfare or safety of children and adolescents. Pat served as the president of the Rhode Island Society Pathologists in 1982-83. Upon their leaving Rhode Island in 1990, the governor proclaimed that May to be Dr. John O’Shea Recognition Month because of his child- favoring activities. After they moved to Atlanta in 1990, Pat spent 11 years as a pediatric pathologist at Emory University, based primarily at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Egleston Hospital. John was director of general pediatrics at Emory University for two years, and then for eight years was director of pediatrics at Meridian Medical Group. John retired from pediatric practice in 2000 and Pat in 2001. They both became docents at the Michael C. Carlos Museum of Antiquities at Emory. Pat, however, died after minor

surgery in early 2002, a major loss for John, her family, and many friends. John was very fortunate to marry Clara Mont- Claire in 2003. She was a fellow docent that both he and Pat had known. Clara is an artist, an Asia-influenced gardener, a gourmet cook, and a splendid companion. John recently served six years on the board and executive committee of Catholic Charities Atlanta, primarily as a fundraiser. He has served on the boards and executive committees of The Atlanta Opera and the Carlos Museum, and was president of the latter’s docent guild. He was the main designer of the $35 million Carlos Museum component of the seven-year $1.6 billion Campaign Emory that ended in early 2013. John has given four different fully-subscribed courses on the “Fantastic Jazz of the 1920s and 1930s” in the winters of 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2020 for the Emory University adult education program, and is planning sequels in the winters of 2021 through 2023. This has been his favorite type of music since the mid-1970s, although he’s also into classical (thanks initially to Hopkins classmate Herb Allen), baroque, and various eras of opera. It occurred to John in 1975 that well-designed and well- enforced laws have been the only proven approach to curtailing injuries — especially in traffic — which are the main cause of death in children, teens and young adults. He has been extensively involved since then — initially on

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