Oral history interview with Frances Gearing, 1983

Biographical Note

Dr. Frances Rowe Gearing was born on February 24, 1915 on the Vancouver Barracks army base in Vancouver, Washington. She attended the University of Vermont for her undergraduate and medical doctorate degree. After graduating as a pediatrician, Gearing interned at Syracuse General Hospital. Throughout her career, she served as an associate professor in the Department of Health Education at the University of Southern Illinois; Director of the Medical Division in the Health Education Department at the Boston YWCA; a member of the advisory board at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Mount Kisco, New York; and a research assistant at the department of pediatrics at Columbia University. In 1957, Gearing earned her masters in public health at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, and began working as a professor in epidemiology at Columbia. In 1965, she was appointed by New York City Hospital Commissioner Ray Trussell as the evaluator of the first methadone program at Manhattan General Hospital. Dr. Frances Rowe Gearing was interviewed for the project that led to the book Addicts Who Survived

Scope and Contents

In this interview, Dr. Frances Rowe Gearing discusses her career in medicine, focusing on her role as evaluator of the first methadone program at Manhattan General Hospital. Other positions noted included: Associate Professor in the Department of Health Education at the University of Southern Illinois; Director of the Medical Division in the Health Education Department at the Boston YWCA; member of the advisory board at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Mount Kisco, New York; Research Assistant at the Department of Pediatrics at Columbia University; and Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia University. Gearing describes how she got involved with the methadone program in 1965 through New York City hospital commissioner Ray Trussell. She discusses her experience evaluating the program, public opposition to the program, and the expansion of the program to different hospitals such as St. Luke's. Gearing also delves into the various studies she conducted with the methadone patients, and resulting papers written on the collected data, such as her 1976 paper "The Impact of Economic Recession on Employment of Heroin Addicts"

Subjects

• Drug abuse--United States--History--20th century.
• Drug addicts--Rehabilitation--United States.
• Drug addicts--United States.
• Gearing, Frances--Interviews.
• Interviews.
• Joseph, Herman, 1931- interviewer.
• Methadone maintenance--United States--History--20th century.
• Oral histories (literary works)
• Trussell, Ray Elbert, 1914-

Access Conditions

Copyright by David Courtwright