Maj. Gen. Theodore Cleveland Bedwell Jr., M.D. was born on 31 Mar 1909 in Caddo Mills, Hunt County, Texas. He died on 11 Oct 1997 in Texas. He was buried on 16 Oct 1997 in Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery. He was a physician and a Major General in the U.S. Air Force.
• U.S. Air Force website bio (http://www.af.mil/bios/bio_4642.shtml)
MAJOR GENERAL THEODORE C. BEDWELL JR.
Retired Aug. 1, 1968. Died Oct. 11, 1997.
Major General Theodore Cleveland Bedwell, Jr., is the director of staff, Office, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower-Health and Medical) Washington, D.C. He coordinates and directs staff activities for the deputy assistant secretary who is the principal adviser to the assistant secretary of Defense (Manpower) for plans, policies, and programs relating to all health activities.
General Bedwell was born in Caddo Mills, Texas, in 1909. He graduated from Sulphur Springs High School, Texas, in 1926; then he attended Northeast Missouri State College, Kirksville, Mo., and Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, from which he was awarded a bachelor of science degree in 1931. He received his doctor of medicine degree from Baylor University Medical College in June 1933. Upon graduation he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Medical Corps Reserve of the U.S. Army.
In November 1935, General Bedwell was ordered to active duty and assigned to Fitzsimons General Hospital, Denver, Colo., where he served until 1939. He was assistant chief of surgery, U.S. Army Hospital, Fort Knox, Ky., from November 1939 to September 1940. After attending the U.S. Army Medical Field Service School and a graduate course at the Harvard Medical School of Public Health, he served as chief of industrial medicine in the Preventive Medicine Division, Office of the Army Surgeon General.
General Bedwell's first Army Air Forces assignment was as a student in the Flight Surgeon's Course at the U.S. Army Air Forces School of Aviation Medicine. He graduated in 1942 and was assigned to McClellan Field, Calif., as base surgeon and hospital commanding officer. During World War II, he served as hospital commander, base surgeon, and command surgeon for the Air Materiel Command, Hill Field, Utah; and as commanding officer of the Regional Hospital and area surgeon for the Warner Robins Air Materiel Area. While at Warner Robins Field, Ga., he organized the 6th Central Medical Establishment.
From February 1946 to March 1948, General Bedwell served at Headquarters Air Materiel Command, Wright Field, Ohio, first as deputy surgeon and chief of industrial medicine, and later as command surgeon. In April 1948, he was assigned to the Far East Air Forces as staff surgeon for Fifth Air Force at Nagoya, Japan.
After returning to the United States, he attended Johns Hopkins School for Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Md., and the Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. Following graduation from the Air War College, he was assigned to the staff of the Assistant Secretary for Health and Medicine in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. From 1953 to 1956 he was chief of preventive medicine in the Office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Air Force.
During the period of July 1956 to February 1961, General Bedwell served as deputy surgeon, then command surgeon of the Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. He was appointed commander, U.S. Air Force Aerospace Medical Center Feb. 1, 1961. On Nov. 1, 1961, when the Aerospace Medical Center was transferred to the Air Force Systems Command as its Aerospace Medical Division, he was retained as its commander. In January 1966, the general was elevated to the position of assistant to the surgeon general, U.S. Air Force, and in July 1966, he became the director of staff, Office, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower-Health and Medical), Washington, D.C., his present position.
General Bedwell is author and co-author of seven professional publications in the fields of aviation medicine, military medicine, aerospace medicine, and public health. He holds the rating of chief flight surgeon and is a member of numerous medical associations and societies, some of which are: Association of Military Surgeons, American Medical Association, fellow and past president of the Aerospace Medical Association, and the Royal Society of Health in England. General Bedwell is certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine as a specialist in Preventive Medicine (1951), Aviation Medicine (Founders' Group - 1953), and Occupational Medicine (Founders' Group - 1956).
In June 1962, the American Medical Association honored General Bedwell for his contribution to the Nation's man in space effort by conferring upon him a "Special Aerospace Medicine Honor Citation." He was presented the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Southern Methodist University in March 1966.
His decorations include the Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation.
• Johns Hopkins University ROTC Alumni Hall of Fame web page (http://www.jhu.edu/~rotc/DMA/1952_Bedwell_DMA.htm) reprints the above and adds:
In his last assignment he was the director of staff, Office, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower-Health and Medical) Washington, D.C., where he coordinated and directed staff activities for the deputy assistant secretary who is the principal adviser to the assistant secretary of Defense (Manpower) for plans, policies, and programs relating to all health activities. He retired August 1, 1968 and died October 11, 1997.
• From a Social Security website:
October 1968 The appointment of Theodore C. Bedwell, Jr., M.D. as Chief Medical Officer for the Medicare program, was announced by Commissioner Robert M. Ball.
• San Antonio Express-News
October 14, 1997
Column: News - Local; Obituary
Ex-Brooks leader Bedwell dies at 88
Author: Scott Huddleston; Express-News Staff Writer
Dr. Theodore Cleveland Bedwell Jr., a former Brooks AFB commander who gave President John F. Kennedy a tour of the base a day before Kennedy was assassinated, has died of Lou Gehrig's disease.
Bedwell, a retired Air Force major general, died Saturday at age 88.
His daughter, Beverly Bryars of San Antonio, said she vividly remembers Kennedy's Nov. 21, 1963, visit at Brooks to dedicate the School of Aerospace Medicine.
Bedwell, who from 1960 to 1966 was the first commander of the Aerospace Medical Division at Brooks, visited with the president and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and introduced them to astronauts who were training at the base, Bryars recalled.
"My dad was his (Kennedy's) host for that afternoon. I was right there on stage," sitting behind Kennedy when he addressed hundreds of Brooks personnel and local dignitaries, she said.
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Gov. John Connally, U.S. Sen. Ralph Yarborough and astronaut Gus Grissom also were there, she recalled.
Besides the School of Aerospace Medicine, Bedwell's division included medical labs in Alaska and New Mexico at a time when the nation was aggressively studying aerospace medicine in hopes of sending a man to the moon, Bryars said.
The day after Kennedy's visit, Bryars had just met her father at the St. Anthony Hotel for lunch when a hotel employee asked, "General, have you heard the news?"
News bulletins about 12:40 p.m. that first reported the president had been seriously wounded by an assassin's bullet in Dallas were followed less than an hour later with news of his death.
"Needless to say, we didn't eat lunch that day," Bryars said.
Born March 31, 1909, in the Northeast Texas town of Caddo Mills, Bedwell was raised by parents who both were physicians. During the 1930s, he earned a bachelor's degree from Southern Methodist University and a medical degree from Baylor University Medical Center.
Bedwell, an Army reservist, worked at U.S. military hospitals during World War II and later pursued an Air Force medical career that included commands at three military hospitals and an appointment as command surgeon of the Strategic Air Command.
He was awarded a special citation in 1962 for his support of the nation's man-in-space program before he retired from the Air Force in 1968.
Bedwell then became the first chief medical officer of the Social Security Administration's Bureau of Health Insurance, which managed Medicare, a federally supported health-care program for the elderly and needy. His job primarily was to explain merits of the program, which was implemented in the late 1960s over objections from the medical community.
Bedwell and his wife, Blanche, returned to San Antonio in 1990.
"He was outwardly quiet and reserved, but I think he had a real sense of what was right and was determined to see that it happened," his daughter said.
Bedwell also is survived by his wife.
A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday at St. Mark's Episcopal Church. The family has planned a private burial.
Copyright 1997 San Antonio Express-News
Record Number: 17551
• Name: Theodore Cleveland Bedwell Jr Birth Date: 31 Mar 1909 Death Date: 11 Oct 1997 Veteran Service Start Date: 1 Dec 1929 Veteran Service End Date: 31 Jul 1968 Rank: MG Branch: US Air Force Last known address: 1520 Harry Wurzbach Road San Antonio, TX 78209 Interment Date: 16 Oct 1997 Cemetary: Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery Buried At: Section Cc Site 54 Cemetary URL: http://www.cem.va.gov/nchp/ftsamhouston.htm
Maj. Gen. Theodore Cleveland Bedwell Jr., M.D. and Blanche H. [--?--] were married.186 Blanche H. [--?--]186 was born on 26 Oct 1909.186 She died on 28 Nov 1997.186 She was buried on 3 Dec 1997 in Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery.186
• Name: Blanche H Bedwell Relationship: Wife of Bedwell, Theodore Cleveland Jr Birth Date: 26 Oct 1909 Death Date: 28 Nov 1997 Rank: MG Branch: US Air Force Last known address: 1520 Harry Wurzbach Road San Antonio, TX 78209 Interment Date: 3 Dec 1997 Cemetary: Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery Buried At: Section Cc Site 54 Cemetary URL: http://www.cem.va.gov/nchp/ftsamhouston.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Information from Ralph Bedwell: Theodore Cleveland Bedwell, Jr., was both a Major General in the Air Force and an M.D. By the end of his career, he was the highest ranking medical officer in the armed forces. He grew up in Texas, a descendant of Caleb Bedwell of Lincoln County, Tennessee.
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Maj. Gen. Theodore Cleveland Bedwell Jr., M.D. was born on 31 Mar 1909 in Caddo Mills, Hunt County, Texas. He died on 11 Oct 1997 in Texas. He was buried on 16 Oct 1997 in Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery. He was a physician and a Major General in the U.S. Air Force.
• U.S. Air Force website bio (http://www.af.mil/bios/bio_4642.shtml)
MAJOR GENERAL THEODORE C. BEDWELL JR.
Retired Aug. 1, 1968. Died Oct. 11, 1997.
Major General Theodore Cleveland Bedwell, Jr., is the director of staff, Office, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower-Health and Medical) Washington, D.C. He coordinates and directs staff activities for the deputy assistant secretary who is the principal adviser to the assistant secretary of Defense (Manpower) for plans, policies, and programs relating to all health activities.
General Bedwell was born in Caddo Mills, Texas, in 1909. He graduated from Sulphur Springs High School, Texas, in 1926; then he attended Northeast Missouri State College, Kirksville, Mo., and Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas, from which he was awarded a bachelor of science degree in 1931. He received his doctor of medicine degree from Baylor University Medical College in June 1933. Upon graduation he was commissioned a first lieutenant in the Medical Corps Reserve of the U.S. Army.
In November 1935, General Bedwell was ordered to active duty and assigned to Fitzsimons General Hospital, Denver, Colo., where he served until 1939. He was assistant chief of surgery, U.S. Army Hospital, Fort Knox, Ky., from November 1939 to September 1940. After attending the U.S. Army Medical Field Service School and a graduate course at the Harvard Medical School of Public Health, he served as chief of industrial medicine in the Preventive Medicine Division, Office of the Army Surgeon General.
General Bedwell's first Army Air Forces assignment was as a student in the Flight Surgeon's Course at the U.S. Army Air Forces School of Aviation Medicine. He graduated in 1942 and was assigned to McClellan Field, Calif., as base surgeon and hospital commanding officer. During World War II, he served as hospital commander, base surgeon, and command surgeon for the Air Materiel Command, Hill Field, Utah; and as commanding officer of the Regional Hospital and area surgeon for the Warner Robins Air Materiel Area. While at Warner Robins Field, Ga., he organized the 6th Central Medical Establishment.
From February 1946 to March 1948, General Bedwell served at Headquarters Air Materiel Command, Wright Field, Ohio, first as deputy surgeon and chief of industrial medicine, and later as command surgeon. In April 1948, he was assigned to the Far East Air Forces as staff surgeon for Fifth Air Force at Nagoya, Japan.
After returning to the United States, he attended Johns Hopkins School for Hygiene and Public Health, Baltimore, Md., and the Air War College, Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. Following graduation from the Air War College, he was assigned to the staff of the Assistant Secretary for Health and Medicine in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. From 1953 to 1956 he was chief of preventive medicine in the Office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Air Force.
During the period of July 1956 to February 1961, General Bedwell served as deputy surgeon, then command surgeon of the Strategic Air Command, Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. He was appointed commander, U.S. Air Force Aerospace Medical Center Feb. 1, 1961. On Nov. 1, 1961, when the Aerospace Medical Center was transferred to the Air Force Systems Command as its Aerospace Medical Division, he was retained as its commander. In January 1966, the general was elevated to the position of assistant to the surgeon general, U.S. Air Force, and in July 1966, he became the director of staff, Office, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower-Health and Medical), Washington, D.C., his present position.
General Bedwell is author and co-author of seven professional publications in the fields of aviation medicine, military medicine, aerospace medicine, and public health. He holds the rating of chief flight surgeon and is a member of numerous medical associations and societies, some of which are: Association of Military Surgeons, American Medical Association, fellow and past president of the Aerospace Medical Association, and the Royal Society of Health in England. General Bedwell is certified by the American Board of Preventive Medicine as a specialist in Preventive Medicine (1951), Aviation Medicine (Founders' Group - 1953), and Occupational Medicine (Founders' Group - 1956).
In June 1962, the American Medical Association honored General Bedwell for his contribution to the Nation's man in space effort by conferring upon him a "Special Aerospace Medicine Honor Citation." He was presented the Distinguished Alumnus Award from Southern Methodist University in March 1966.
His decorations include the Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster and the Republic of Korea Presidential Unit Citation.
• Johns Hopkins University ROTC Alumni Hall of Fame web page (http://www.jhu.edu/~rotc/DMA/1952_Bedwell_DMA.htm) reprints the above and adds:
In his last assignment he was the director of staff, Office, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Manpower-Health and Medical) Washington, D.C., where he coordinated and directed staff activities for the deputy assistant secretary who is the principal adviser to the assistant secretary of Defense (Manpower) for plans, policies, and programs relating to all health activities. He retired August 1, 1968 and died October 11, 1997.
• From a Social Security website:
October 1968 The appointment of Theodore C. Bedwell, Jr., M.D. as Chief Medical Officer for the Medicare program, was announced by Commissioner Robert M. Ball.
• San Antonio Express-News
October 14, 1997
Column: News - Local; Obituary
Ex-Brooks leader Bedwell dies at 88
Author: Scott Huddleston; Express-News Staff Writer
Dr. Theodore Cleveland Bedwell Jr., a former Brooks AFB commander who gave President John F. Kennedy a tour of the base a day before Kennedy was assassinated, has died of Lou Gehrig's disease.
Bedwell, a retired Air Force major general, died Saturday at age 88.
His daughter, Beverly Bryars of San Antonio, said she vividly remembers Kennedy's Nov. 21, 1963, visit at Brooks to dedicate the School of Aerospace Medicine.
Bedwell, who from 1960 to 1966 was the first commander of the Aerospace Medical Division at Brooks, visited with the president and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy and introduced them to astronauts who were training at the base, Bryars recalled.
"My dad was his (Kennedy's) host for that afternoon. I was right there on stage," sitting behind Kennedy when he addressed hundreds of Brooks personnel and local dignitaries, she said.
Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Gov. John Connally, U.S. Sen. Ralph Yarborough and astronaut Gus Grissom also were there, she recalled.
Besides the School of Aerospace Medicine, Bedwell's division included medical labs in Alaska and New Mexico at a time when the nation was aggressively studying aerospace medicine in hopes of sending a man to the moon, Bryars said.
The day after Kennedy's visit, Bryars had just met her father at the St. Anthony Hotel for lunch when a hotel employee asked, "General, have you heard the news?"
News bulletins about 12:40 p.m. that first reported the president had been seriously wounded by an assassin's bullet in Dallas were followed less than an hour later with news of his death.
"Needless to say, we didn't eat lunch that day," Bryars said.
Born March 31, 1909, in the Northeast Texas town of Caddo Mills, Bedwell was raised by parents who both were physicians. During the 1930s, he earned a bachelor's degree from Southern Methodist University and a medical degree from Baylor University Medical Center.
Bedwell, an Army reservist, worked at U.S. military hospitals during World War II and later pursued an Air Force medical career that included commands at three military hospitals and an appointment as command surgeon of the Strategic Air Command.
He was awarded a special citation in 1962 for his support of the nation's man-in-space program before he retired from the Air Force in 1968.
Bedwell then became the first chief medical officer of the Social Security Administration's Bureau of Health Insurance, which managed Medicare, a federally supported health-care program for the elderly and needy. His job primarily was to explain merits of the program, which was implemented in the late 1960s over objections from the medical community.
Bedwell and his wife, Blanche, returned to San Antonio in 1990.
"He was outwardly quiet and reserved, but I think he had a real sense of what was right and was determined to see that it happened," his daughter said.
Bedwell also is survived by his wife.
A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Thursday at St. Mark's Episcopal Church. The family has planned a private burial.
Copyright 1997 San Antonio Express-News
Record Number: 17551
• Name: Theodore Cleveland Bedwell Jr Birth Date: 31 Mar 1909 Death Date: 11 Oct 1997 Veteran Service Start Date: 1 Dec 1929 Veteran Service End Date: 31 Jul 1968 Rank: MG Branch: US Air Force Last known address: 1520 Harry Wurzbach Road San Antonio, TX 78209 Interment Date: 16 Oct 1997 Cemetary: Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery Buried At: Section Cc Site 54 Cemetary URL: http://www.cem.va.gov/nchp/ftsamhouston.htm
Maj. Gen. Theodore Cleveland Bedwell Jr., M.D. and Blanche H. [--?--] were married.186 Blanche H. [--?--]186 was born on 26 Oct 1909.186 She died on 28 Nov 1997.186 She was buried on 3 Dec 1997 in Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery.186
• Name: Blanche H Bedwell Relationship: Wife of Bedwell, Theodore Cleveland Jr Birth Date: 26 Oct 1909 Death Date: 28 Nov 1997 Rank: MG Branch: US Air Force Last known address: 1520 Harry Wurzbach Road San Antonio, TX 78209 Interment Date: 3 Dec 1997 Cemetary: Ft. Sam Houston National Cemetery Buried At: Section Cc Site 54 Cemetary URL: http://www.cem.va.gov/nchp/ftsamhouston.htm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Information from Ralph Bedwell: Theodore Cleveland Bedwell, Jr., was both a Major General in the Air Force and an M.D. By the end of his career, he was the highest ranking medical officer in the armed forces. He grew up in Texas, a descendant of Caleb Bedwell of Lincoln County, Tennessee.
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