Oct. 29, 2005 — Dr. John Moorhead turned 100 on Oct. 28 and Gov. Charles Turnbull has declared it Dr. John Moorhead Day in appreciation for his medical service to the people of the islands.
According to a press release from Government House, Dr. Moorhead was born in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1905 to Virgin Islands parents, Alexander and Justine Moorhead.
The Moorhead family relocated to St Croix in 1912, where he received his early elementary education in the public school system. In 1917 the family relocated to St. Thomas. Dr. Moorhead completed his high school education at Wilberforce Methodist Institute in Xenia, Oh. He received his undergraduate degree from Howard University College of Liberal Arts, his medical degree from the Howard University School of Medicine, and completed his two-year medical internship at Harlem Hospital in 1931-32. He returned home and joined the staff of the St. Thomas Municipal Hospital in 1933.
Dr. Moorhead completed advanced medical training at the London School of Tropical Medicine in 1936, a two-year surgical residency at Howard University in 1939-41, and advanced medical training at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in 1946 after which he returned to the Virgin Islands. He was appointed the Commissioner of Health in 1948, joined the United States Public Health Service from 1952 to 1968, and was assigned to the United States AID Program and served in Liberia, Iran, Vietnam, and Arizona.
Dr. Moorhead retired from the public health service in 1969 and returned to the Virgin Islands where he was subsequently employed in the V.I. Public Health Program.
In May 1976 Queen Margrethe II of Denmark made Dr John S. Moorhead a Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog.
In 1980, the 13th Legislature of the Virgin Islands passed a resolution honoring him "for his long, dedicated and distinguish service to the V.I. community, and for a lifetime of unselfish services devoted to the upliftment of humanity."
He was selected as the 1998 honoree at the Annual Physicians' Award Ball sponsored by the V.I. Medical Institute and the V.I. Medical Society. "Dr. Moorhead served his community well for over sixty years as an active member of the medical profession, and it is fitting that we honor Dr. John Moorhead on the occasion of his 100th birthday and thank him for his outstanding public service record, his medical contributions to humanity and his medical service to the people of the Territory for over sixty years," concluded Turnbull in his proclamation.
