Dan C. English, MD, MA

May 5, 1931 – February 6, 2025
Dan was born and grew up in Lubbock, Texas, the son of Roxie Almeda Couch and Otis Willis English, MD. His parents were pioneers choosing, as his father said, to build a life “where there’s room to grow” on the plains of West Texas. Otis, the first son of a family of 8 children born to Baptist minister, Joe English and his wife, left home at age 15 to enroll in college at Hardin-Simmons in Abilene. In the enrollment line, the registrar tried to have him enroll in high school instead, but when he insisted that his choice was college, she declared, “Well, you’re just a Babe!” This story retold many times led to his lifelong nickname of Babe English. Dan, also developed a nickname, “Bo”, when older brother Sonny (Otis, Jr.) mispronounced ‘brother’. While  Babe built a surgical practice, wife, Roxie, a shrewd businesswoman, helped in the oversight of the Silver Falls Bar X Ranch in Crosbyton and several cotton farms.
As children, Bo and Sonny enjoyed riding horses at the ranch, but Bo gravitated more toward his father’s profession as Sonny became the rancher. Bo, jokingly called himself as a ‘drugstore cowboy’ in the old sense of the term, referring to someone who tried to impress others with his insubstantial cowboy image. During summer holidays, the family often vacationed with the Couch cousins in Tres Ritos, NM and went fishing in Colorado. After graduating from Lubbock High School, Bo attended Baylor University, playing on the tennis team and drums in the marching band.  He majored in English, furthering a lifelong pleasure in writing and reading.
After graduation from Baylor Medical School, he married Mary Lucille Dansby a school teacher in Houston. The couple raised three children, Dana Leigh, Eric Otis and Mary Elaine. For two years, he interrupted his surgical training in order to serve in the Army, being posted in Regensburg, Germany. His experiences in medical school and residency training left him unsettled. He felt that the insensitive and highly critical educational environments he encountered did not serve the profession well. During his residency he often stayed up late into the night discussing these matters with fellow resident Ed Coppola.
As a young surgeon, Dan built practices in Lubbock and Tyler, Texas. In the early 1970’s, he was invited to join Coppola and the faculty at the newly created College of Human Medicine at Michigan State University. The College was built around new models of training doctors to practice in community-based settings. A dream come true for Dan, he played a decisive role in its early years, helping to define its dual mission: to shape the curriculum of the medical school, training students so as to have a greater sensitivity to patients’ needs and to serve the medical requirements of small communities. He was highly regarded by his students who he often hosted in his home. This dedication to teaching won him awards and he was featured on the national television program Medicine in America. As a practicing surgeon, he was lauded for his strong emphasis on patient communication: preparing them in advance for surgical procedures and emphasizing follow-up care.
His further professional accomplishments include the following. While chair of the Department of Surgery, Dan was selected as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow for the 1980-81 year. Strongly committed to ethical and humane care, Dan authored the first text for medical students Bioethics: A Clinical Guide for Medical Students (1994) that dealt with the moral implications of providing care to patients, and subsequently co-authored Case Studies in Biomedical Ethics: Decision-Making, Principles & Cases (2014) with Robert M. Veatch and Amy M. Haddad.  After his tenure at Michigan State, Dan moved to Washington, D.C., earning a master’s degree at the Kennedy Institute of Ethics of Georgetown University and subsequently teaching courses on medical ethics.
On the personal side, he was a lifelong churchman, starting with the Southern Baptist church in Texas and eventually attending St. Christopher’s Church in Chatham. He liked to explore the ‘big questions’ with clergy. Dan also was an advocate for Social Justice often supported by congregations he joined. He attributed his awakening to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s words in Letter from Birmingham Jail.
Dan’s connection with Cape Cod began in 1980 when he married Dr. Teresa (Tessa) Cochran, psychologist, and daughter of Orleans residents Drs. Betty and William Cochran. Dan and Tessa relocated to the Cape in 2013, where Dan loved to play the piano music of his favorite composers, Beethoven and Mozart. As a retirement activity, he embarked on poetry writing with a group organized at the Snow Library by Dr. Peter Saunders. Dan held fast to the tradition of rhyming verse poems, somewhat mystified by ones that did not include them.
Lest he sound like an overly serious guy, he was also able to have fun. As a tennis player, cyclist, and golfer, he enjoyed going on outings with his seven grandchildren when they visited. Fellow golfers will appreciate that he made a hole in one at Blue Rock just two days shy of his 90th birthday! Tessa and Dan loved to travel and recall most fondly trips to Kenya and Japan.
Happily, Dan’s children have continued the family pioneering spirit, with Dana becoming an Anglican Priest with 2 parishes in London, UK; Resolution Strategies attorney Eric developing the field of settlement counseling; and Elaine, a children’s drama teacher, bringing the pleasures of small community theater to the English countryside. Signs of this legacy are already evident among the grandchildren.
After being diagnosed with dementia, Dan continued to enjoy being with his friends and family. We are grateful to the Alzheimer’s Family Support Center and to the staff of Maplewood Senior Residence for their skillful and compassionate support as well as to friend and companion, John Carpenter.
Dan leaves his wife, Tessa English; his three children and seven grandchildren: Sam and Michael English Whalen, Hayden, Isabel, Olivia, and Adele English, and Kenan Cameron John, as well as the families of his sister-in-law Elizabeth (Liz) De Lima and brother-in-law Alexander (Sandy) Cochran.
A memorial service will be held at The Episcopal Church of the Holy Spirit, Orleans, Massachusetts, on May 31, 2025. The family requests that those wishing to make donations on his behalf, to consider: Hastings Center for Bioethics - attn: Siofra Vizzi, 21 Malcolm Gordon Road, Garrison, NY 10524; Alzheimers Family Support Center 2095 Main St. Brewster, MA 02631.