John W. V. Cordice

John Walter Vincent Cordice, Jr. (June 16, 1919 – December 29, 2013) was an American doctor and surgeon who is most notable for operating on Martin Luther King Jr. to save his life after a 1958 assassination attempt.

Early life

Cordice was born on June 16, 1919^[1][2] in Durham, North Carolina.^[3] He moved to New York in order to study at NYU for undergrad and New York University School of Medicine.^[3] His father, also a doctor,^[4] practiced at Lincoln Hospital in North Carolina.^[5] The elder Cordice was born in St. Vincent, West Indies and died in 1958.^[6]

Medical career

Cordice joined the Army in 1943^[7] and served as the official physician for the Tuskegee Airmen.^[4] While in the Army, he spent a year in France, where he assisted in that country's first open heart surgery.^[4] Cordice worked at Harlem Hospital for forty years,^[3][8] rising to the position of chief of thoracic surgery.

On September 20, 1958,^[9] Martin Luther King Jr. was attacked with a paper knife by Izola Curry. Cordice, along with doctors Aubre Maynard,^[10] Farrow Allen and Emil Naclerio, were called in to operate.^[3][11] Cordice mapped out a strategy which successfully saved King's life.^[2] He was the subject of the book When Harlem Nearly Killed King: The 1958 Stabbing of Dr. Martin Luther King, by Hugh Pearson.^[12]

Private life

Cordice resided in Harlem and later Queens.^[13] On December 29, 2013, he died of natural causes at the age of 95, in Iowa.^[10][14][13]

References

1. Pearson, Hugh (4 January 2011). When Harlem Nearly Killed King: The 1958 Stabbing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 9781609803216 – via Google Books.
2. "Dr. W.V. Cordice Jr., 94, a Surgeon Who Helped Save Dr. King, Dies". The New York Times. 5 January 2014.
3. "Dr. John Cordice dead at 95 — once saved Martin Luther King". New York Daily News.
4. Daly, Michael (20 January 2014). "The Black and White Men Who Saved Martin Luther King's Life". The Daily Beast.
5. Organ, Claude H.; Kosiba, Margaret M. (1 March 1987). A Century of Black surgeons: the U.S.A. experience. Transcript Press. ISBN 9780961738006 – via Google Books.
6. "The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography: Being the History of the United States as Illustrated in the Lives of the Founders, Builders, and Defenders of the Republic, and of the Men and Women who are Doing the Work and Moulding the Thought of the Present Time". J. T. White. 1 January 1891 – via Google Books.
7. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-10-22. Retrieved 2016-09-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
8. "Scientist Obituary: The Surgeon Who Helped to Save Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers — Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers". PBS.
9. (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-09-23. Retrieved 2016-09-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
10. Schwartz, Felicia. "Dr. John Cordice, who operated on MLK after stabbing, dies". CNN.
11. "Stabbing of the Rev. M. L. King Jr". Jet. Johnson Publishing Company. 1958-10-02. Retrieved 2020-08-23 – via Google Books.
12. Pearson, Hugh (4 January 2011). When Harlem Nearly Killed King: The 1958 Stabbing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Seven Stories Press. ISBN 9781609803216 – via Google Books.
13. "John Cordice, surgeon who once saved MLK's life, dies in NYC". The Boston Globe. Died Sunday
14. Chasmar, Jessica (December 31, 2013). "Surgeon who helped save Martin Luther King Jr. from stabbing dies at 94". The Washington Times.