For colleagues, family and patients alike, Penn trauma director John Pryor, a major in the Army Reserve Medical Corps who died Christmas morning on his second tour of duty in Iraq, was "nothing but a role model, both as a surgeon and as a human being."
So said Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania Surgery and Interim Trauma professor Patrick Kim, who worked with Pryor for 10 years.
Pryor died on a frontline surgical unit after suffering wounds from mortar rounds. He had deployed to Iraq Dec. 6.
HUP surgery professor Vicente Gracias said he was a unique presence in the workspace who thought of his job as "a privilege, not a burden."
Pryor was "always the go-to person ... any time of the night, any day of the week," HUP physician and surgery professor Jose Pascual added.
He also played an integral role in forming Penn's Medical Emergency Response Team, said MERT Chief and College junior Josh Glick.
Glick called a lecture Pryor gave that compared Philadelphia violence and violence in Iraq a "moving" experience for all who attended. "He could teach any group of people," he said. "He really had a passion for what he did."
Pryor's work also extended outside Penn's boundaries. On Sept. 11, 2001, he volunteered at Ground Zero to assist those wounded in the attacks. The experience motivated him to join the army reserves and travel to Iraq twice last year despite his family's objections, Kim said.
Pryor was "marked" by the destruction and suffering he saw on his first tour of duty, Pascual said, adding that he brought back a greater understanding of his job and his country's people.
Gracias said he returned to Iraq because of an "unbelievable sense of duty...for the injured soldiers" and his "sense of purpose when it came to being not just American but also a human being." Pryor had an "absolute understanding" of what he was risking by returning, he added, calling the decision "heroic."
"He loved his wife and loved his kids, and he stared himself in the mirror and said 'I'm still going to go,'" Gracias added. "He did it eyes wide open."
