F. Douglas Scutchfield

LEXINGTON, KY — F. Douglas Scutchfield, MD, founding Director of the San Diego State University School of Public Health, passed away on Monday, May 23rd in Lexington, Kentucky.

Known to his friends as “Scutch,” he was born on April 23, 1942, in Wheelwright, Kentucky, attended Hazard High School and Eastern Kentucky University, and received his medical degree from the University of Kentucky in 1966.

Witnessing firsthand the poverty of Appalachia, Dr. Scutchfield gravitated toward the field of public health and preventive medicine through additional training at Northwestern University and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). He was one of the founders of the College of Community Health Science at the University of Alabama.

Dr. Scutchfield was recruited to SDSU by then-president Thomas Day to be Director of the new School of Public Health. Dr. Scutchfield convinced President Day that San Diego needed a strong school of public health with a focus on the health of US - Mexico border communities.

Upon arrival in San Diego, Dr. Scutchfield got

April 23, 1942 - May 23, 2022 to work building a leading school of public health from scratch. He recruited senior established public health leaders from the University of Pittsburgh, UC Berkeley, and from the US Army, and balanced the “gray hairs” with eager young public health scientists who would build international reputations at SDSU. The new faculty welcomed the first master’s in public health students into the program in the fall of 1981.

A master at cobbling resources together, Scutch developed very close ties with both county and state health departments, and with the UCSD School of Medicine, with which he worked to establish both a two-campus PHD program in epidemiology and a joint residency program for physicians in preventive medicine and public health. He also served as Co-editor of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine

from 1995 to 2014 and launched the Journal of Appalachian Health in 2018.

Dr. Scutchfield continued as Director of the School until 1995 when he returned to his home state to found the School, now College, of Public Health at the University of Kentucky and to become the Peter P. Bosomworth Professor in Health Services Research and Policy.

Among his numerous awards are the Sedgwick Medal, the most prestigious award given by the American Public Health Association; he was also a member of the American Medical Association House of Delegates. Scutch was a force in expanding the field of public health both in San Diego and nationally. When founded, SDSU’S was the 23rd school of Public Health in the country. Today, there are nearly 200 schools and programs of public health across the US. SDSU is listed in the top 20 overall and 10th among public universities.

Beyond his leadership and his scholarship, Scutch will be remembered for his giving collegial spirit. His warm, bigger-than-life personality included an ever-present smile and a rolodex of every significant player in public health science and practice.

As academics, most of us learn to tolerate endless meetings and ceremonial events. Scutch thrived on them. Never one to miss a social gathering, he welcomed every opportunity to praise a colleague, to fantasize about the future of public health, or to tell an entertaining “Kentucky Coal Country” story. Nobody could do this better than Scutch.

Dr. Scutchfield is survived by Phyllis, his wife of 50 years; their son and daughter-in-law, Alex and Jennifer; two grandchildren, Cassandra Ann and Ethan Layne; and his brother Scott and Scott’s wife Margaret.

A tall man with an easy smile and big laugh, he will be greatly missed by his many hundreds of colleagues, friends, and students.

A celebration of his life will be held later in the spring at the University of Kentucky.

San Diego State University is establishing a scholarship for SDSU public health students in memory of Dr. Scutchfield. To donate, please go to

philanthropy.sdsu. edu/douglasscutchfield or sdsualumni.org/ Douglasscutchfield.

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