James Henry " Red " Duke , Jr. ( November 16 , 1928 – August 25 , 2015 ) was a trauma surgeon and professor at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston and Memorial Hermann-Texas Medical Center , where he worked on-site since 1972 . He was instrumental in introducing Memorial Hermann 's Life Flight program and bringing a level I trauma center to Houston . Outside Texas , he is probably most famous for the nationally syndicated television spot called '' Texas Health Reports '' or '' Dr. Red Duke 's Health Reports '' , which aired on local television stations in the United States for fifteen years . Duke was born in Ennis , Texas . He graduated from Hillsboro High School and later earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Texas A&M University in 1950 . He served as a yell leader at Texas A&M and was the first person to deliver the poem " The Last Corps Trip " publicly . He served a two-year tour of duty as a tank officer in the 2nd Armored Division of the U.S. Army and then earned a divinity degree from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in 1955 . After reading a book by Albert Schweitzer , he changed vocations to medicine and enrolled in the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas , from which he received his M.D. in 1960 . Duke completed his internship in internal medicine and his residency in general surgery at Dallas ' Parkland Memorial Hospital in 1965 . During his residency , Duke was the first surgeon to receive President John F. Kennedy at Parkland after he was shot in Dallas in 1963 , then attended to the wounds of then Texas Governor John Connally
shot in Dallas in 1963
Assassination of John F. Kennedy
James "Red" Duke