Title:Lives Well Lived

Lives Well Lived honors a few alumni who have recently passed away. We share with you these portraits of alumni who have made an indelible impact living day to day as people for others.
You can find a more complete In Memoriam list at alumni.georgetown.edu/in-memoriam.

James Duggan

James E. Duggan (C’64, L’69), retired New Hampshire Supreme Court Justice, public defender, and law professor, died on August 13, 2022, at his home in Amherst, New Hampshire.

He graduated from Georgetown with his undergraduate degree in 1964 and spent two years in the Peace Corps in Togo, West Africa. He returned to the U.S. to go to Georgetown University Law Center, graduating in 1969. Duggan served as a staff attorney for the District of Columbia’s Public Defender Service, where he had worked as an investigator during law school. He opened the first public defender office in Manchester, New Hampshire, in 1974, began teaching at Franklin Pierce Law Center in Concord, New Hampshire, in 1977, and helped expand the public defender’s office statewide. He was appointed to the New Hampshire Supreme Court in 2001 and served as associate justice until 2011.

Duggan was an avid reader, gardener, golfer, and artist. He is survived by his wife, Helen Hartman, who said, “Jim will be remembered for his unwavering devotion to his family, his friends, and his pursuit of fairness and integrity within our judicial system.” Two sons, Brian and Brendan Duggan, and sister Jane Duggan Ogle also survive him.

Marion Mann, M.D., Ph.D.

Retired Brigadier General Marion Mann (MS’59, R’60, G’61, HON’79), former dean of the Howard University College of Medicine, passed away in Washington, DC, on August 20, 2022. He was 102 years old. He graduated with honors from Tuskegee Institute in 1940 and began a career in the armed services before marrying Ruth Maurine Reagin in 1943.

Dr. Mann graduated as president of his class from Howard University Medical School in 1954. He earned his M.S. from Georgetown in 1959 and his Ph.D. in 1961. The university awarded him an honorary doctorate in 1979.

He was selected dean of the Howard University School of Medicine in 1970, while establishing the Sickle Cell Disease Center and Cancer Research Center. He retired as dean in 1980, returning to the university in 1988 as associate vice president for research.

He is survived by his son Marion Nicholas Mann, daughter Judith Mann Walk, six grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren.

His daughter Judy recalls, “Despite growing up in a single-parent family with five brothers during the depression, segregation, and racism of the Jim Crow South, he rose through the top ranks of academia and the military. He expected excellence from everyone, especially himself. But what really endures for us is his gentle smile, kind eyes, big hugs, love for family, gentle guidance, and wisdom.”

Julia Wershing, M.D.

Julia Martha Wershing (M’58, R’59, HON’84), passed away at the age of 89 in Madison, Nebraska. She was born in New York City, and received a degree in chemistry from the University of Missouri in 1950. Applying to Georgetown School of Medicine in the early 1950s, she was told she was rejected because she
“would marry and waste her education.” When a male student canceled at the last minute, she was admitted—one of three women in her class—and graduated in 1958.

She interned and was a resident in Georgetown University Hospital’s pediatric unit, and then became a cardiology fellow at Colorado Medical Center in Denver, where she was a pediatrics instructor researching heart-lung machines for premature infants.

In 1963, she became clinical director of the new Children’s Clinic in Nassau, Bahamas—the only such clinic in the country, serving a predominantly low-income population. During her 29 years running the clinic, where she was known as “Dr. Julie,” she saw more than 23,000 patients, whom she referred to as “my kids.” When she started, vaccination rates in the Bahamas were near zero. By the time she left, they were higher than in the United States.

Simultaneously, she served as Georgetown University professor of pediatrics, with hundreds of medical students receiving clinical pediatric instruction under her supervision. She was awarded an honorary doctorate of science in 1984 by the school for her work with these students. Her research on childhood parasites and disease was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. In 1992, she was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire in recognition of her service to the Bahamian people.

She returned to the United States and briefly served the children of military families in the Charleston, South Carolina, area, until cancer forced her retirement. Her Nassau memorial mass was conducted by 22 priests, including the archbishop—all former patients. She is survived by her sister, Mary Ann Flack; nine nieces and nephews; and 11 great-nieces and great-nephews.

Her niece and namesake, Julie Wong, recalled, “Aunt Julie inspired great loyalty and dedication. She remained in touch with many of her former patients, Georgetown students, and former colleagues. She retired and moved to Nebraska to be near her sister, and even living in a remote part of the country, several of her former colleagues would still trek out to visit her in the nursing home every year.”