archives collection - American Academy of Family Physicians ...

James A. Burdette, M.D. was born in Knoxville, Tennessee in 1925. After serving in the U.S. Army
from 1943-1946, he earned a B.A. in 1949 from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville, and a B.S.
in 1952 from the University of Tennessee-Memphis. In the same year, he earned his M.D. from the
University of Tennessee College of Medicine (Memphis). Following graduation, Dr. Burdette
completed an internship at Shreveport Charity Hospital and a rotating residency in general surgery at
Knoxville General Hospital. He joined the AAGP in 1955, the same year he entered private practice
in Knoxville, where he remained in practice until 1972. In 1967-1968, Dr. Burdette was a research
fellow in Family Medicine at Children’s Hospital Medical Center at Harvard Medical School. He
held numerous academic appointments from 1969-2000, at the following institutions: University of
Tennessee-Knoxville, University of Kentucky at Lexington, Bowman Gray School of Medicine in
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. Notably, he
served as professor and chairman of the Department of Family Practice at the University of
Kentucky-Lexington from 1972-1976. Dr. Burdette’s involvement in Family Medicine organizations
was long and varied, and included service in the Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina
constituent chapters, and in the AAGP/AAFP, NAPCRG, and STFM. Dr. Burdette was a charter
ABFP diplomate in 1970, and was named an AAFP Fellow in 1973. He received the Tennessee
Academy’s General Practitioner of the Year Award in 1970, and served as a delegate from Tennessee
to the AAGP/AAFP Congress of Delegates from 1964-1972. In addition, he was a member of the
Ambulatory Sentinel Practices Network (ASPN), and gave numerous scientific presentations and
published many scientific papers. In 1982, Dr. Burdette moved to Lenoir City, Tennessee, where he
established a private practice which served the local community there until 1998. After he retired
from practice in 1998, he moved back to Knoxville. He died in 2011.
This collection consists of significant materials pertaining to Dr. Burdette’s participation in early
efforts to establish a certification board for Family Practice. Dr. Burdette was part of the Sponsoring
Founders Group, American Board of Family Practice, which was an earlier incarnation of what
would eventually become the ABFP/ABFM. Much of this collection consists of correspondence
between members of this founders group such as Drs. Thomas Rardin, Nicholas Pisacano, Vernon
Wilson, and other supporters of the movement.
Burket, George E., “Ned” Jr., M.D. (1912-2008)
1963-2008
1 box – See also: Audio-Visual Collection; Museum Collection; Oversized Collection;
Photograph Collection; and Slide Collection
George E. Burket Jr., M.D., was born in 1912 in the small town of Kingman, Kansas and spent the
majority of his life there. Encouraged by his father George E. Burket, Sr., a dentist, and inspired by
Dr. Haskins, a Kingman physician, the lifelong Kansan attended Wichita State University before
obtaining his medical training from the University of Kansas; he graduated in 1937. In the two years
after medical school, Burket completed an internship and residency in surgery at Santa Barbara
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