William Edwin (Ed) Magee, Sr. M.D. September 2, 1927-November 25, 2025. Beloved husband for 73 years to Lorraine Dorothy Magee (nee Allgaier); dear father of Suzanne Magee, William Magee, Jr. (Kathy), Jennifer Cox, Wendy Sarver (Reed); grandfather to ten; great grandfather of 14; uncle, cousin, physician, teacher and friend to many. He was preceded in death by his parents Rev. A.C. Magee and Louise Plowden Magee; his brother Archibald Carter Magee;and his beloved grandson William Thomas (Tommy) Grant.
Born in Sumter, South Carolina, the son of a Baptist minister and a teacher, Dr. Magee became interested in being a doctor when he was eleven years old and said he never lost interest. When he was 19 years old, he enrolled at Duke University and graduated in three years. He said he “got an early running start.” He graduated from Duke Medical School in the class of 1950, and followed with an internship at Washington University, Barnes Hospital. In July 1951 he joined the Medical Corps at Shaw Airforce Base in Sumter South Carolina. January 26, 1952, he married Lorraine Allgaier, a Washington University nursing graduate “with whom I had been madly in love for almost a year!” In July 1953 he returned to Barnes/Washington University to complete residency, finishing as chief resident in Medicine in June 1956. He completed a fellowship in Internal Medicine. He went into private practice in St. Louis, creating the Internal Medicine Associates, Ltd group. In addition to private practice, he served on the staff of Washington University School of Medicine as an assistant professor of Clinical medicine. and volunteer attending in the Medicine clinic; and in 1961 also served as the part-time Corporate Medical Director of the Ralston Purina Company (RPCorp). In 1979, he became the Corporate Medical Director of RPCorp. He said his mission there included advising all employees through selected screenings, writings and recorded medial messages on a wide variety of medical conditions, good health and disease preventing practices. Dr. Magee was instrumental in making RPCorp the first smoke-free Fortune 100 company in America and lauded around the world for this achievement.
He was awarded the Ageless Remarkable St Louisan award, an appropriate nod to one who thought that one of the most exciting things was keeping up with the vast amount of information on preventing and treating diseases. He said that teaching is one of the best ways to keep in touch, and he was appreciated for the time he spent with residents and house staff including inviting them to trout fish at his country property, “Mistwood.”
Way ahead of his time, Dr Magee was preaching about the benefits of the Mediterranean diet, wearing seatbelts, sunscreen and tobacco risks in the 1960s! A true renaissance, he played piano, guitar and quoted a lot of poetry. He loved nature, hunting, fishing, camping, canoe trips and sailing and served on the Missouri Conservation Commission. He served on the Boards of Camp Wyman and the American Youth Foundation. He carried his Christian faith in his heart and tried to live as a Christian -- And what a Sunday School teacher he was! As devoted as he was to medicine, he was even more devoted to his family and friends and they were devoted to him.
“What I personally find most rewarding in medicine is the realization of Dr. Stead’s statement, ‘The Glory in Modern Medicine is in the Prevention of Disease.’ As physicians we are always trying to prevent or delay a disease from happening; or we are trying to prevent complications and death from a disease we already have; or we are trying to prevent suffering when nothing else works. I think we are getting pretty good at it”
Dr. W.E.Magee, MD
Visitation will be held Thursday, Dec 4 from 4-8 pm at the Heiligtag-Lang-Fendler in Arnold, Missouri.
Interment will be Friday at 11:30 am at Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery in St Louis, MO. (family only)
Memorial Service will be at 1 pm at the family home with a reception following.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the St Luke's United Church of Christ in Imperial, MO; and to WashU Department of Internal Medicine and can be made online https://internalmedicine.wustl.edu/giving/
