John W. V. Cordice Explained

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

Medical career

Cordice joined the Army in 1943[6] and served as the official physician for the Tuskegee Airmen.[3] While in the Army, he spent a year in France, where he assisted in that country's first open heart surgery.[3] Cordice worked at Harlem Hospital for forty years,[2] [7] rising to the position of chief of thoracic surgery.

On September 20, 1958,[8] Martin Luther King Jr. was attacked with a paper knife by Izola Curry. Cordice, along with doctors Aubre Maynard,[9] Farrow Allen and Emil Naclerio, were called in to operate.[2] [10] Cordice mapped out a strategy which successfully saved King's life.[11] 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.[9] [14] [13]

Notes and References

  1. Book: Pearson, Hugh . When Harlem Nearly Killed King: The 1958 Stabbing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. . 4 January 2011 . Seven Stories Press . 9781609803216 . Google Books.
  2. Web site: Dr. John Cordice dead at 95 — once saved Martin Luther King . .
  3. Web site: The Black and White Men Who Saved Martin Luther King's Life. Michael. Daly. . 20 January 2014.
  4. Book: A Century of Black surgeons: the U.S.A. experience. Claude H.. Organ. Margaret M.. Kosiba. 1 March 1987. Transcript Press. 9780961738006. Google Books.
  5. Web site: 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. 1 January 1891. J. T. White. Google Books.
  6. Web site: Archived copy . 2016-09-21 . 2016-10-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20161022214625/http://www.nma-surgical.org/files/Cordice-eulogy.pdf . dead .
  7. Web site: Scientist Obituary: The Surgeon Who Helped to Save Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. — Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers . PBS.
  8. Web site: Archived copy . 2016-09-21 . 2016-09-23 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160923011954/http://www.nychealthandhospitals.org/harlem/downloads/pdf/newsletter-martin-king-3c.pdf . dead .
  9. Web site: Dr. John Cordice, who operated on MLK after stabbing, dies . Felicia . Schwartz. CNN.
  10. Web site: Stabbing of the Rev. M. L. King Jr . . 1958-10-02 . Johnson Publishing Company . Google Books . 2020-08-23.
  11. Web site: Dr. W.V. Cordice Jr., 94, a Surgeon Who Helped Save Dr. King, Dies. 5 January 2014. The New York Times.
  12. Book: Pearson, Hugh. When Harlem Nearly Killed King: The 1958 Stabbing of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.. 4 January 2011. Seven Stories Press. 9781609803216. Google Books.
  13. Web site: John Cordice, surgeon who once saved MLK's life, dies in NYC . The Boston Globe. Died Sunday.
  14. Web site: Surgeon who helped save Martin Luther King Jr. from stabbing dies at 94. Chasmar. Jessica. December 31, 2013. The Washington Times .

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