{{Short description|Psychiatrist, theologian, medical ethicist and minister}} thumb|James A. Knight, MD '''James A. Knight, MD''' (October 20, 1918 – July 17, 1998) was a psychiatrist, theologian, medical ethicist, and ordained Methodist minister.<ref name=obituary>New Orleans Times Picayune obituary, July 18, 1998.</ref> His principal contributions were in medical student development, the intersection of psychiatry and religion, ethical issues in medicine, and the understanding of conscience.<ref name=obituary />
Knight was born in St. George, South Carolina, on October 20, 1918. He graduated from Wofford College and earned his MD at Vanderbilt University. He completed his post-graduate medical training at Grady Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, and at Duke University Hospital in Durham, North Carolina. Additionally, Knight completed a Master of Divinity Degree at Duke University and a Master of Public Health degree from Tulane University.
Knight held the Harkness Chair in Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary in New York.<ref name=Harkness>Albert C. Outler, [https://www.springer.com/psychology/journal/11089 Pastoral Psychology], vol. 14, no. 9, p. 4 (1963).</ref> He then served in a variety of administrative posts, including Dean of Admissions at Tulane University School of Medicine, where he promoted the admission of people of diverse ethnic and educational backgrounds into medical school. Knight was the first Dean of the newly formed Texas A&M University College of Medicine, a post he held for five years (1973 - 1978).<ref name="Texas State Historical">[http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/kct45 Texas State Historical Society], accessed April 6, 2012.</ref> He subsequently left university administrative posts to finish his career as a professor at Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans and return to the Texas A&M College of Medicine as professor from 1992 - 1997.<ref name=Sprague>Charles C. Sprague, foreword in "Doctor-To-Be: Coping with the Trials and Triumphs of Medical School", James A. Knight, Appleton-Century-Crofts, publishers, 1981, {{ISBN|0-8385-1722-6}}.</ref>
Knight's many awards included the Distinguished Alumni Award from Wofford College in 1971,<ref name=Wofford>[http://www.wofford.edu/library/archives/content.aspx?id=30918 The National Alumni Association Distinguished Service Award of Wofford College] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100528055001/http://www.wofford.edu/library/archives/content.aspx?id=30918 |date=2010-05-28 }}, accessed March 20, 2012.</ref> and one for his leadership of the Society for Health and Human Values.<ref name=ASBH>The Society for Health and Human Values became part of the [http://www.asbh.org/ American Society for Bioethics and Humanities] as of 1998.</ref>
He was a member of the Society for the Scientific Study of Religion.<ref name=obituary /> Knight earned a fellowship from the World Health Organization for study at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zürich, Switzerland, in 1961.<ref name=obituary />
During World War II, he served as a U.S. Navy Chaplain on the USS Sanctuary Haven-class hospital ship. He died on July 17, 1998, at the age of 79.<ref name="obituary"/>
==External links== * [http://medicine.tamhsc.edu/basic-sciences/him/awards/knight-award-leadership.html James A. Knight Award for Leadership in Medicine]. * [http://tulane.edu/som/StudentAffairs/our-staff.cfm James A. Knight Chair of Humanities and Ethics in Medicine] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120414063634/http://tulane.edu/som/StudentAffairs/our-staff.cfm |date=2012-04-14 }} at Tulane University School of Medicine. * A 1963 [https://doi.org/10.1007%2FBF01769752 photograph of Knight] can be viewed on-line.
==Selected books== * "Doctor-To-Be: Coping with the Trials and Triumphs of Medical School", James A. Knight, Appleton-Century-Crofts, publishers, 1981, {{ISBN|0-8385-1722-6}}. * "A Psychiatrist Looks at Religion and Health", Abington Press, New York, 1964. * "For the Love of Money: Human Behavior and Money", J.B. Lippincott, Philadelphia, 1968.
==References== {{Reflist|2}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Knight, James A.}} Category:1918 births Category:1998 deaths Category:American psychiatrists Category:Tulane University faculty Category:Wofford College alumni Category:Vanderbilt University School of Medicine alumni Category:Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine alumni Category:20th-century American medical doctors Category:People from St. George, South Carolina