James R. Starling, M.D. '65

2024 Distinguished Alumni Award for Professional Achievement: College of Health Sciences

From the pristine halls of medical school to the delicate precision of the operating room, James R. Starling, M.D. '65 has dedicated his life to the art and science of surgery, as well as teaching future surgeons, sculpting the future of healthcare itself.

Starling studied biology at Carroll while spending his junior year studying abroad at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon. After graduating from Carroll in 1965, he attended medical school at the University of Rochester in New York, completing his medical degree in 1969.

He completed his residency in surgery at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Starling then moved to Iowa City, IA where he became a staff surgeon at the Veterans Administration Hospital and an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Iowa.

In 1977, Starling moved to Madison, WI, where he worked his way up from staff surgeon at William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital to chief of surgery, which he held from 1979 until he retired after 2005 from the VA system. Also, in 1977, Starling started as an assistant professor of surgery at the University of Wisconsin. He was promoted to associate professor and then professor, being granted professor of surgery emeritus status upon retirement in 2008. After he retired, he began teaching as an adjunct professor of Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He helped mold the minds of future surgeons for over 32 years.

Starling has authored and co-authored more than 140 book chapters and articles in medical journals. He has received over a dozen honors and awards, including being selected by peers to be published in Best Doctors in America three times and for the Surgical Resident Teaching Award five times.

He participated in all major surgical societies and organizations, including the prestigious American Surgical Association and serving as the President of the Madison Surgical Society. He was also an American College of Surgeons Fellow. He has volunteered to serve on professional activities, committees, and boards, and as a program director, chairman, and examiner. Finally, he received research funds from organizations like the Veterans Administration and the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

Since retiring, he has been on 12 medical missions to Palestine, Panama, Haiti, and Ecuador. He operated on complex thyroid patients and trained local teams in seven missions to the West Bank of Palestine. Starling served as a medical consultant on his remaining missions to Panama, Haiti, and Ecuador.

Starling lives in Pittsboro, NC, outside of Chapel Hill. He and Betsy Starling have three children, Claire, James, and Alison, as well as five grandchildren