Irene G Tamagna

Irene Tamagna (Irene Gorski) was born May 3, 1915 in Vienna Austria. She lived and attended Medical School in Vienna, Austria until 1938 when she was forced to leave her home and medical training due to the Nazi Occupation of Austria. She moved to Italy to continue her medical studies at the Medical School of Rome and to marry Frank M. Tamagna (an economist at the Central Bank of Italy). She learned Italian by reading medical texts. However in 1939, during her final (sixth) year of medical school in Italy, the Hitler-Mussolini pact again forced Dr. Tamagna to leave her studies and new home without completing her degree. Irene Tamagna and her husband moved to the United States and undeterred by her ambition to study medicine, she reapplied to Medical School in the United States. However because of her status as a Jewish refuge, woman and foreigner, all but one of her 50 applications to medical school was rejected. The Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania accepted Dr. Tamagna, but only recognized 1 year of training. She again learned a new language and completed the additional years of Medical School. She subsequently completed her residency and further specialty training in cardiology, as the first woman resident and first cardiology fellow at NY Post Graduate and Columbia University Medical Centers. Dr. Tamagna joined the George Washington University Medical School Faculty in 1948 and continued her career there for over 30 years.

At GWU, Dr. Tamagna opened and directed the first Hypertension Clinic. Dr. Tamagna was a leader in the fight against poliomyelitis and opened one of only nine polio Respiratory Centers in the country. She subsequently became Director of the GWU Division of Rehabilitation and the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center. Dr. Tamagna was a pioneer in education and comprehensive medicine. She received recognition for her outstanding contributions, leadership and dedication to Rehabilitation of the Handicapped from the District of Columbia Rehabilitation Association and the US Department of Education.

With her multilingual background, Dr. Tamagna served as the Embassy physician for the Austrian and Swiss Embassies and in 1995, she received the “Gold Medal of Honor” from the Republic of Austria for her services to the Embassy of Austria.

In addition to her academic accomplishments, Dr. Tamagna continued her private practice through her career at GWU and after retiring. She was a very dedicated physician, seeing patients in her home office and making frequent house calls.

She was loved by her staff, students and patients.

She derived great joy from her life with her loving husband Frank Tamagna. They balanced two demanding and rewarding careers with world wide travels, raising two successful daughters, and a life filled with friends and family.

Dr. Tamagna is survived by her two daughters and their husbands: Ellen Tamagna and Victor Hogen and Jane Tamagna and Lonnie Darr; her grandchildren and their spouses: Katherine and Travis Furr, Jeremiah Tamagna-Darr and Sarah Keesler, Lucas and Heather Tamagna-Darr, Rachel Tamagna Hogen and Matthew Russell and Victor Tamagna Hogen as well as her three great grandchildren: Skylar Furr, Elsie Tamagna-Darr, and Caleb Keesler.

In lieu of flowers, we would appreciate contributions to the United States Holocaust Museum, Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), or So Others Might Eat (SOME).