Gordonsville High School would like to thank the estate of Dr. Joe Grisham for his donation to our school.
Dr. Grisham graduated from Gordonsville High School and received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Vanderbilt University. After marrying his high school sweetheart they moved to St. Louis, MO where he trained in and then taught Pathology at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes Hospital. In 1961, Dr. Grisham was on research leave at the Makerere Medical College of the University of East Africa in Kampala, Uganda studying liver cancer until he was summoned by the US Navy. He served as a research radiobiologist Lt. Commander at the US Navy Radiological Defense Laboratory in San Francisco, CA for 2 years, returning to St. Louis MO afterwards.
In 1973, Dr. Grisham became chair of Pathology at the University of Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC. Dr. Grisham made internationally recognized landmark contributions to the understanding of liver function and disease. Over the years, Dr. Grisham helped to form and lead the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UNC, leading by quiet example and demanding no more of others than himself. According to one of his most beloved colleagues, Nadia Malouf Anderson, he preferred to ‘let the flowers bloom’ without taking credit as the ‘gardener’. Dr. Grisham was an early leader in bringing many more women and minorities to strengthen and diversify the department. And to equalize salaries and overcome other discriminatory differences.
Dr. Grisham remained at UNC until 2003. He then worked at the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, MD until 2008. Dr. Grisham has received many awards including the Gold-Headed Cane Award, was inducted into the Order of the LongLeaf Pine, and received the UNC Jonathon B. Howes’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
Joe loved science, books, food, wine, and the world. Joe believed in hard work, integrity, fairness, equal rights, and justice. He continued to love Middle TN and came back to the farm as often as he could. Joe especially loved the tomatoes, sweet corn, and peaches in July. This physician, scientist, teacher and humanitarian will be greatly missed.
Dr. Joe Wheeler Grisham, born on a small farm in Brush Creek, TN December 5th 1931 died January 25, 2025 at home in Chapel Hill, NC.
Dr. Grisham will be missed, but his impact on Gordonsville High School will be remembered always.