John Allen Schriver, a pioneering and pathbreaking physician, hobby enthusiast, beloved father, grandfather, and sibling, passed away peacefully surrounded by family on 30 October 2025 at the age of 88. The cause was complications from Parkinson’s Disease.
John Schriver was born on 11 August 1937, in Buffalo, New York, to James and Mary Schriver. The eldest of six children, he naturally embraced the responsibilities of an older sibling, a role he carried with him throughout his life. Though his family lived with modest means, his childhood was filled with the warmth of a loving and supportive home, close-knit neighborhood friendships, and a deep love of baseball.
John’s youth was also marked by moments of adventure. He played catcher for a local baseball team that advanced to a national tournament in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. At sixteen, he and a friend embarked on an unforgettable escapade—quietly slipping out in the middle of the night to drive his friend’s family car across the country to California and back. Years later, he would bring his own children to the very spot where he first laid eyes on the Pacific Ocean, sharing with them the wonder of that moment.
John graduated from Amherst Central High School in Buffalo, New York, in 1955, where he became the first recipient of the school’s Most Distinguished Alumni Award. He went on to attend Bethany College in Wheeling, West Virginia, earning a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and graduating cum laude in 1959. Bethany later honored him with a Distinguished Alumni Award as well.
During his time at Bethany, John was an active member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity and remained dedicated to his academic goals, especially his aspiration to enter medical school. In his sophomore year, he met Sarah “Sally” Carman Kelly. The two dated throughout college and were married in 1960. Their marriage, which lasted fourteen years, was blessed with three children: daughters Leslie and Lynn, and son Randy.
After completing his undergraduate studies, John attended the State University of New York School of Medicine in Buffalo on a Navy scholarship where he was one of six graduates elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He earned his M.D. in 1963 and went on to complete his internship at St. Albans Naval Hospital in Queens, New York. Shortly thereafter, he embarked on a brief but impactful career as a flight surgeon in the United States Navy, a period that would yield some of his most cherished memories and lifelong friendships.
Following a training assignment in Pensacola, Florida, he was stationed with VP-28, a P-3 squadron based in Barbers Point, Hawaii. During his time with the squadron, he supported two deployments: one to Adak, Alaska, and another to Sangley Point in the Philippines. While in the Philippines, VP-28 flew “Market Time” missions off the coast of Vietnam during the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.
After rising to the rank of Lieutenant Commander (LCDR), John resigned his commission in 1968 to pursue a career in private medical practice.
During his time in the Navy, John made a couple of stopovers in the state of Oregon and he became captivated with its natural beauty and lifestyle. He and Sally decided to start his post Navy career there and they relocated to Beaverton, Oregon. It was at the Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU) in Portland, Oregon that he completed his Residency in Internal Medicine and where he was appointed Chief Resident. After three years, he moved his family to Salem, Oregon and joined a private family medical practice.
After John and Sally divorced, he made a decision that would set the trajectory for the rest of his professional life—one that would ultimately influence the broader field of medicine. Although originally board-certified in internal medicine, John chose to pursue advanced specialty training in emergency and critical care medicine at the University of Southern California (USC) School of Medicine, home to one of the first academic departments of Critical Care Medicine in the United States. He went on to become one of the first physicians in the nation to earn board certification in both Emergency and Critical Care Medicine. This marked the beginning of a career in which he would help shape and define the emerging field of emergency medicine itself.
John was hired to become the Founding Member and first Chief of Emergency Medicine and Critical Care at the Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, Oregon in 1976. Having already played a role in Los Angeles at USC in creating the modern emergency response system involving the 9-1-1 call and the ambulance response, he continued to innovate in Portland. He established the Emergency Medicine Residency, the Oregon Poison Control and Drug Information Center, the School of Paramedic Training, the Pacific Northwest Emergency Medical Communications Center and fellowships in research, ultrasound, and pre-hospital care. Early in this appointment, Dr. Schriver established the third independent academic Section of Emergency Medicine in the country. The Emergency Medicine Library, Oregon Heath Sciences University was dedicated to and named after Dr. John A. Schriver.
While in Portland he married Alana Jay “AJ” O’Conner. They remained married for fourteen years and were blessed to adopt John’s fourth child Angela in 1985.
John then had the opportunity to take the lessons learned from Oregon and apply them to Yale University School of Medicine when he was appointed the Founding Member and first Chief of Emergency Medicine at Yale-New Haven Hospital in 1991. He is therefore unique in the history of emergency medicine in the United States having established two academic departments of emergency medicine.
John had subsequent service as Chief of Emergency Medicine, Rochester General Hospital, Rochester, NY (2004-2010), at the Department of Emergency Medicine, Wound Care Center and Hyperbaric Suite, George Washington University Hospital, Washington DC (2010-2015) and at the Saudi Military Hospital, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (2011) where he established the country’s first Hospitalist Service. Along the way he mentored and trained many of the country’s top emergency medicine and critical care physicians. John had a distinguished and nationally recognized career in medicine.
Known to his fraternity brothers as “Foggy John” because his mind was forever buried in a medical or history book, John carried a lifelong love of reading. He was an original and an engaging, witty raconteur who delighted in sharing stories of the many humorous moments in his life. His passion for his hobbies ran deep, especially his interest and fascination with World War II, a period he came to know with the expertise of a true aficionado. Over the years, he amassed a personal library of more than 6,000 volumes and collected a remarkable array of memorabilia from the era.
John was also an avid baseball fan, the Cardinals were his team, though he often chose to watch Yankees games instead—finding even greater joy in seeing the Yankees lose than in watching his beloved Cardinals win. It gave him countless opportunities to shake his head and repeat one of his favorite declarations: “The Yankees just don’t play fundamental baseball.”
He was an impactful and imaginative father and grandfather. His children and grandchildren remember not only his life and career advice such as never make a big decision after the sun has gone down, recognize a good job and keep it, and always carry a twenty-dollar bill in your wallet, but also remember his fun side. They recall him “struggling” to keep the car from veering into the local ice cream shop (a battle he conveniently “lost” every time), playing the “close your eyes game” while driving past the Pixieland amusement park, making pony-neighing noises at birthdays as if one were hiding in the back, and inventing countless humorous road-trip games and songs. John had a genuine, wholehearted enthusiasm for every sporting event, concert, and performance his family participated in.
John is preceded in death by his parents, and siblings Betty and Albert. He is survived by his siblings Joberta, Linda, and Margo, his children Leslie, Lynn, Randy and Angela, his sons-in-law Ernst, Greg and Jessy, his daughter-in-law Jordan, seven grandchildren and many nieces and nephews.
A memorial service for John is planned for Saturday, January 31, 2026, at Sleepy Hollow Presbyterian Church in San Anselmo, California.
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