In Memoriam: Charlotte Edwards Maguire, 1918-2014

Charlotte Maguire, a pioneering pediatrician who was a major force in the establishment of the medical school at Florida State University, died at an assisted-living facility in Westminster Oaks, Florida. She was 96 years old.

Dr. Maguire grew up in Orlando. She put herself through what is now the University of Memphis by working the night shift as a long-distance telephone operator. She then enrolled in the medical school at the University of Arkansas, where she was the only woman in her class. She began a pediatric practice in Orlando in 1946. Two years later, she married a man who was nearly 30 years older than she. Her husband was an attorney and the owner of a citrus grove business. When her husband died in 1960, she took over the management of the citrus business while maintaining her medical practice.

Dr. Maguire was a strong advocate for the establishing a medical school at Florida State University, which opened in 2000. In return for her generous support, the medical school’s library and Center for Clinical Simulation were named in her honor. An endowed professorship and several scholarships were also named in her honor.

Dr. Maguire served as assistant secretary of health and scientific affairs in what was then called the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare. Late in her career, she shifted her medical focus to geriatrics from pediatrics. In 2013, she was declared a “Great Floridian” by Governor Rick Scott.