Robert Tuttle, MD

Dr. Robert Tuttle was recruited to the Medical School by Dr. Cheves Smythe in 1971 as professor of microbiology and the associate dean for academic affairs. As associate dean, his job was to create the Medical School’s curriculum with a thin faculty and virtually no facilities or resources. Faculty recruitment as well as student recruitment also was a top priority for the start-up school.

Tuttle was named acting dean in March 1975, and he then focused his attention on completing phases II and III of the Medical School Building, which added 852,000 feet of lab, classroom, and administrative space to the John Freeman Building, which was phase I. Tuttle was named permanent dean in December of 1975.

Tuttle came to the Medical School from Bowman Gray School of Medicine in North Carolina. He received his medical degree from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry and did an internship in medicine at the Strong Memorial Hospital of the University of Rochester. He also pursued training in tropical medicine at the Institute of Tropical Medicine, Bowman Gray School of Medicine.

He resigned from the Medical School in 1981. He died Nov. 26, 2004.