J. David Hagan
2004 COSAM Distinguished Alumnus
Dr. J. David Hagan '65
Dr. David Hagan, pre-medicine '65, was named the first COSAM Distinguished Alumnus for his many contributions to the college and its students.
"Men like David make it so that those of us in COSAM now can benefit from their efforts and what they did to get us here today," said Stewart Schneller, former dean of COSAM.
A graduate of Benjamin Russell High School in Alexander City, Ala., Hagan attended his first Auburn football game at Cliff Hare stadium in 1958 and began his studies at Auburn in 1961. Upon graduation, he continued his education at the Medical College of Alabama in Birmingham (now part of UAB), and received his medical degree in 1969. Following an internship and residency at UAB and a chief residency at Carraway Medical Center, he was board certified in internal medicine and practiced internal medicine in Auburn from 1973 to 2003. He was elected a fellow of the American College of Physicians in 1990.
Hagan has been a dedicated advocate for COSAM for more than 20 years. A member of the COSAM Advisory Council since 1992, as well as a former chairman of the distinguished group, he has also served as chair of COSAM's Development Committee and was a member of the previous campaign committee. Additionally, he has been involved with the Dean's Scholarship Golf Classic since its inception.
For the past 20 years, Hagan has also worked closely with COSAM, assisting in anyway he can to continue to enhance the pre-health program.
"The immediate need when I started to get involved was scholarships. Early on, I spent most of my time obtaining money for scholarships. I found that I really like asking people for money for a good cause," Hagan said.
Since he retired in 2003, he has been even more instrumental in assisting COSAM's pre-health sciences students.
"Job shadowing opportunities in the area had been available for years, but there were not nearly enough of them. When you have a student in your office, you want to spend time talking to them, so a physician can't take on too many students because it will slow him down. That's why we needed more opportunities and more physicians to get involved," Hagan said.
As a result, Hagan coordinated job shadowing opportunities for COSAM students in seven different areas of medicine with a variety of doctors for three-hour sessions.
"When I attended medical school, I realized I was wonderfully prepared because of the great advisors, faculty members and mentors I met at Auburn," said Hagan. "These same ideals and programs are still maintained and are, in fact, better than ever and better every year. The College of Sciences and Mathematics is, in my view, a paradigm of the ideal college and home to some of the best and brightest faculty, students and administrative personnel. This makes the award especially meaningful to me."