Pattie W. Van Hook

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Pattie W. Van Hook (1927 - December 8, 1992) was a professor of family medicine at the Louisiana State University Medical School in Shreveport. She was also the first woman president of the Louisiana State Medical Society, having only recently concluded those duties prior to her sudden death in Nashville, Tennessee.

Van Hook was born in Shreveport. At the time of her death, she wore three hats: (1) the assistant dean for student affairs at the medical school, (2) an associate professor of family medicine, and (3) the director of the occupational health clinic at the institution. She became well known in the community earlier as the appointed director of the Caddo/Shreveport Health Department. She was also a former associate medical director for American Telephone and Telegraph in Shreveport. Her expertise hence reached into some half-dozen areas: medical education, public health, minority-group health care, drug abuse intervention, occupational medicine, and awareness of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome.

Dr. Van Hook was ecumenical in her faith. Though a member of the Noel Memorial United Methodist Church in Shreveport, she taught a Sunday school class at the First Baptist Church, once pastored by the legendary Monroe E. Dodd. In 1989, she received the "Brotherhood and Humanity Award" from the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Her memorial services in the Noel Methodist Church were conducted by clergy from Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish faiths.

She was preceded in death by her husband, the Shreveport dentist, Dr. Robert Eugene Van Hook (born 1929). Survivors included her daughter and son-in-law, Dr. Susan V. Williams (born 1953) and Dr. R. Bruce Williams of Shreveport; her son and daughter-in-law, Dr. James W. Van Hook (born 1957) and Dr. Catherine L. Van Hook of Kirkland, Washington, and three grandchildren.

The family requested memorials to the Pattie W. Van Hook Memorial Fund for Medical Student Scholarships at the Commercial National Bank of Shreveport. Dr. Van Hook's papers were deposited in the archives of Louisiana State University at Shreveport.