Rice mourns lost of trustee emeritus Frederick Lummis Jr.

Rice mourns lost of trustee emeritus Frederick Lummis Jr.

BY B.J. ALMOND
Rice News Staff   

Rice University alumnus and trustee emeritus Frederick Rice Lummis Jr. died Dec. 13. He was 76.

FREDERICK LUMMIS

“We will always remember Fred’s soft-spoken and gentlemanly manner, his caring and thoughtful views about Rice, his many contributions to the university, and his and Marilyn’s outgoing warmth to fellow trustees, academic leaders and alumni,” said Jim Crownover, chair of the Rice Board of Trustees.

Lummis was elected a term governor at Rice in 1996. He became a trustee in 1998 and a trustee emeritus in 2003.  He served on the board’s Campaign Leadership Committee and the Rice University Fund Council. He also was a Golden Anniversary Class Solicitor for the Rice Associates.

A native Houstonian, Lummis attended the Rice Institute for three years and then entered the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, from which he received an M.D. in 1956. He was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha, the medical student honor society.

Lummis left Houston for an internship at the University of California, San Francisco, and then served in the U.S. Air Force as a general medical officer with the rank of captain. He did more postgraduate training at Hermann Hospital in Houston and at the Lahey Clinic in Boston and then entered private practice in internal medicine and gastroenterology at the Diagnostic Clinic of Houston, from which he retired in 1990.

The boards of many medical and charity organizations on which Lummis serve included the Harris County Medical Society, of which he was elected president in 1990, and the Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, of which he was appointed chairman in 1994.  He was also a trustee emeritus of the Houston Museum of Natural Science, the Museum of Health and Medical Science and the Episcopal High School.

A member of the American College of Physicians, Lummis was also a fellow of the American College of Gastroenterology.

Lummis is survived by his wife of 53 years, Marilyn Graves Lummis, four sons, six grandchildren and a stepgranddaughter.