John W Deming

An only child from the small town of Evergreen, Alabama, John W Deming attended Auburn University before he enrolled in Tulane School of Medicine. He was smart and driven, graduating first in his class from Tulane. “He always thought his time at Tulane was an important part of the person he became,” said his son, Claiborne P. Deming (A&S ‘76, L ‘79). After he graduated from medical school, John Deming completed an internship at Charity Hospital in New Orleans, then served as a captain in the Army Medical Corps. He practiced internal medicine in Alexandria, Louisiana from 1950 to 1985 becoming known far and wide as a talented diagnostician with a gentle but effective bedside manner. “If you were sick and wanted to truly understand what was wrong, you wanted to go to John Deming,” said his daughter Catherine Deming Pierson (G ’78, SW ’89), an emeritus member of the Board of Tulane. “He practiced medicine in the days before advanced testing, which meant that he had to use his gift of listening to and connecting with his patients to make a diagnosis.” Almost immediately when John Deming graduated from Tulane, he joined the ranks of the university’s top supporters, generous with his resources and time. He became a member of the Tulane board of administrators (one of the first members from outside New Orleans), an associate professor of clinical medicine, a charter member of the medical center’s board of governors and a recipient of the university’s distinguished alumnus award. John Deming passed away in 1996 at the age of 76.