Vice Admiral Donald Arthur, USN (Ret.)
Last Name: Arthur
First Name: Donald
Middle Name: C.
Rank: Vice Admiral
Service/Department: United States Navy
ACNSL Offices and Committees:
Medals and Honors:
Distinguished Service Medal (2)
Legion of Merit (3)
Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (2)
Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal
Last or Significant Assignment: 37th Surgeon General of the United States Navy
A Massachusetts native, Don Arthur graduated from Northeastern University where he was a member of 2 honor societies. He attended medical school at the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now Rutgers New Jersey Medical School). He is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. Dr. Arthur was the medical school’s 2002 Distinguished Alumnus.
VADM Arthur served in a wide variety of clinical, operational, and leadership positions, culminating in appointment as a Vice Admiral and 35th Surgeon General of the Navy. He is board-certified in preventive medicine (aerospace) and was residency trained and board certified in emergency medicine. He was Commander (CEO) of the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, and the Naval Hospital in Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. He deployed and served with the hospital ship USNS Mercy rendering aid to Banda Aceh, Indonesia, devastated by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and resultant tsunami. He served with the Marine Corps performing combat support during Operation Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991. Dr. Arthur was a flight surgeon, submarine medical officer, saturation-qualified Navy diver, and a Navy-Marine Corps parachutist and jumpmaster. He received 2 Distinguished Service Medals as well as numerous other personal, campaign, and service awards, including the Combat Action Ribbon.
Following retirement from the Navy, Dr. Arthur was Senior Vice President and Chief Medical Officer at Main Line Health based in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He was responsible for all clinical health services; physician contracts; credentials and clinical appointments; laboratory, pharmacy, and radiology services; clinical quality improvement; bioethics; peer review and safety programs; infection control; risk management; regulatory compliance; disaster planning; medical informatics, graduate and continuing medical education; and human subject research programs. In 2009, he was interim President of Riddle Memorial Hospital in Media, PA.
In retirement, he attended the Massachusetts police academy and was a part-time sworn officer in Wellfleet, Massachusetts. Thereafter, he and his wife, Mary, attended the University of Massachusetts School of Law where he was a summa cum laude graduate. Attorney Arthur worked for a local law firm representing Massachusetts victims of injustice in all aspects of state and federal civil litigation for 5 years full time and another 2 years Of Counsel. He is licensed to practice medicine and law in Massachusetts and is a member of the Massachusetts, District of Massachusetts, and U.S. Supreme Court Bars. He has been an adjunct professor of law at the University of Massachusetts School of Law for 4 years.
Dr. Arthur was a member of the Harvard University inaugural class of the Advanced Leadership Initiative. He is a fellow and past president of the Aerospace Medical Association, fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives, and fellow of the American College of Preventive Medicine.
