My friend John Froude, who died at the age of 80, was a infectious doctor and worked around the world. He died of complications from a stroke suffered last fall.
After resident medical positions In Orpington, London and the National Heart Hospitals in London, he went to Nigeria in 1973, and continued to work in Africa, Zimbabwe and Uganda, and in the Middle East before settling in New York, where he obtained a post at Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan in the 1980s, when the Sids epideme began.
He moved to practice as a specialist in infectious diseases in Kingston, in the Hudson valley in 2000. His skills as diagnosis and doctor were greatly appreciated by his medical and nursing colleagues, especially throughout the horrors of the coco-19 pandemic when he praised the skills of the nursing staff. It was in Kingston that he became fascinated by Lyme disease, which is endemic in the Hudson valley.
John was born in Eastbourne, in the middle of three sons of Dympna (née Murphy), nurse, and Leonard Froude, a police officer. He grew up in Worthing, West Sussex, and attended Steyning Grammar School as a resident before studying medicine in Guy's Hospital School in London in 1962, where we met. There he admitted that he was probably the worst student ever recorded. He also had aspirations to become writers. Finally, he achieved both his ambitions to be a doctor, a profession that he experienced passionately and a writer.
Stimulated by Covid, he wrote Palues, a book on pandemics above ages, and followed this with real Lyme, on Lyme disease. He also wrote and published two novels.
He has worked until his illness and, in recent years, had alternated between working as a doctor in us and writing at home in Worthing.
John had a large circle of friends, was a big storyteller, an enthusiastic musician and an impressive linguist. He had long been an admirer of Bob Dylan. John was proud of his Irish heritage and delighted with Irish literature, especially James Joyce. It was a source of pride for him when he obtained Irish nationality.
John is survived by his partner, Elaine Taylor, with whom he concluded a civil partnership in 2022, his daughters, Abigail and Susannah from his marriage to Barbara Watkins, who ended with divorce, and his sons, Jack and Luke of his marriage to Gilda Riccardi, who also ended with divorce, five grandchildren and brothers.
