Biographies of the 2010 Laureate Award Honorees

In 2010, the Texas Chapter presented its highest award to two distinguished members - W. Mark Armstrong, MD, MACP and George E. Crawford, MD, MACP

The Laureate Award honors Fellows and Masters of the ACP who have demonstrated by their example and conduct an abiding commitment to excellence in medical care, education, or research, and in service to their community, the Chapter, and the ACP.

W. Mark Armstrong, MD, MACP

William Mark Armstrong grew up in Scottsboro, a small town in northeast Alabama. In high school, he graduated first in his class and was a basketball star. Mark was a Wilkins scholar at the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. During college he continued to play basketball, served as Secretary-Treasurer of the Student Body, and graduated cum laude in 1968. He attended the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine, where he was a campus leader and student member of the Admissions Committee. He received the Merck leadership award upon graduation in 1972.

Mark came to Texas in 1972 as an intern in Internal Medicine at the Dallas VA Hospital and continued his training at UT Southwestern Medical School. Mark began his career in private practice in Dallas in 1975; he initially joined the Dallas Medical and Surgical Clinic and later partnered with Dr. Paul Neubach. He and Dr. Neubach became founding members of Medprovider, which eventually merged with Baylor Health Care System. He has been a valued member of the staff at Baylor University Medical Center, serving on multiple committees (Medical Records, Transfusion, Medicine QA, Medical Advisory and the Medical Executive Committees). He serves as the Chief of General Internal Medicine and the assistant Chief of the Department of Internal Medicine at BUMC. Dr. Armstrong has had a close relationship with Mary Shiels Hospital, as well, serving as Medical Director, Board member, chief of the consulting service, and president of the medical staff. Over the years he has also served as a board member for Southwest Physicians Associates, Medical Director for PDQR, and Vice-President of SPACO Management Company.

Since 1993, Dr. Armstrong has been an integral member of the Internal Medicine residency program, serving as the director of the resident’s outpatient clinic. He became the Associate Director of the program in 2001 and in 2004 was named the John Binion Professor of Medicine at BUMC. The ACP has greatly benefitted from Mark’s leadership as board member from 1991-1993 and again 2000-2002. In 2004, he was the chair of the Scientific Program for the state chapter meeting. For more than a decade he has been a preceptor in the Chapter’s GIMSPP program. In 2004, Dr. Armstrong began his term as Governor/Governor-Elect for the north Texas region. He served on the National Awards Committee, Bylaws Committee, the Resolutions Reference Committee, chairing the latter in the Spring of 2008. During his tenure as Governor, the chapter received four Chapter Excellence Awards and three
Evergreen Awards.

Throughout the 35 years since residency, Dr. Armstrong has served his hospital, colleagues, the College, and his profession. His primary focus has been on the care of his patients and the education of the house staff. He continues to actively practice Internal Medicine, following his patients through the continuum of their care, both in the hospital and in the out-patient setting. He serves as a mentor and role model for the internal medicine residents and students at BUMC.

He is married to Dr. Nancy Armstrong, an internist, and is the father of two successful daughters, Meredith, a wife, mother of his two adored grandsons, and active volunteer, living in London, and Melissa, an attorney with Baker Botts, living in New York City.

With great pride the Texas Chapter of the American College of Physicians honors Dr. Mark Armstrong with the Laureate Award.

George E. Crawford, MD, MACP

George E. Crawford, MD, FACP is a magna cum laude graduate of the University of Notre Dame and won highest honors at Northwestern University Medical School, where he was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha. He completed his internal medicine residency at the Massachusetts General Hospital and a fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Washington. He then spent more than 20 years in the US Air Force, holding multiple positions of leadership. Among these were internal medicine residency director at David Grant Medical Center and Wilford Hall Medical Center, and chair of medicine at the Malcolm Grow Medical Center and David Grant Medical Center. During that time he won multiple awards for his teaching. He additionally served as President of the Society of Air Force Physicians and the Armed Forces Infectious Disease Society. He was appointed Clinical Professor of Medicine at UTHSC-San Antonio when he returned to Wilford Hall in 1993. Dr. Crawford retired from the Air Force in 1997, and since has been a faculty leader at UTHSC-San Antonio.

As the Associate Chair for Education in the Department of Medicine, Dr. Crawford was responsible for all educational programs for medical students, residents, and subspecialty fellows. He demonstrated superb organizational skills in administering a large number of complex courses and curricula. In 2007, he relinquished his title to direct the residency program full-time. Over the past 3 years, he has strengthened the curriculum while responding to the competencies structure introduced by the ACGME.

While serving as Associate Chair for Education, Dr. Crawford simultaneously served as Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases, directing teaching programs, mentoring faculty, and overseeing clinical care. He continues to attend on the ID consultation service and the HIV/AIDS inpatient ward. Dr. Crawford also acts as a general internist. He frequently staffs resident continuity clinics, instructing our trainees in chronic disease management. In this setting he role models the importance of generalism at a time when the vast majority of residents are opting for subspecialty careers. His exhaustive knowledge of the literature allows him to instruct our residents in a positive way.

Dr. Crawford has authored papers in major journals on gonorrhea, streptococcal pharyngitis, measles, and rubella. He was an investigator on a multicenter trial that tested the efficacy of varicella vaccine for the prevention of zoster and post-herpetic neuralgia, published in the NEJM in 2005. This led to the CDC’s recommendation for use of the vaccine.

Dr. Crawford became an ACP Member in 1980 and advanced to Fellowship in 1983. During his military career he was an active member of the ACP’s Air Force Chapter, and in 1998 he received that chapter’s Laureate Award. He has continued to serve the ACP since transferring to our chapter. He was an invited speaker on adult immunizations at our 2009 meeting. He has repeatedly volunteered to judge Associates’ posters at national and Texas Chapter meetings, and has organized and conducted Doctors’ Dilemma sessions at the Associates’ Southwest Regional meeting and the Texas Chapter meeting.

The Texas Chapter of the ACP is pleased to bestow the Laureate Award on George E. Crawford, MD, FACP.