Dr. George Anderson Hurst

Dr. George Anderson Hurst was called home by his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on December 10, 2023. A pillar of the Tyler medical, civic, and Christian communities, Dr. Hurst faithfully and selflessly served his God, his family and his fellow Texans through his talents, wisdom, and loving care. The son of Presbyterian minister missionaries, George Harvard Hurst and Hazel Everley Hurst, Dr. Hurst was born November 3, 1933, in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil where he spent his childhood with his beloved older sister Clemmie, learning English and Portuguese. As a young teen, his parents sent him to America for school and he attended the Darlington School in Georgia. Dr. Hurst later graduated from Austin College and obtained his medical degree from UT-Southwestern in Dallas where he also did his internal medicine residency. He completed fellowships in both pulmonary medicine and infectious disease. While in Dallas, Dr. Hurst met and fell in love with Judith O’Connell, originally from Northern California, who became his bride of 59 years when they married in 1964. The Hursts moved to Tyler in 1964 when Dr. Hurst took a clinical director job with the East Texas Chest Hospital. During the early years of his career as a physician, he worked to bring new treatment techniques and innovations to the Tyler community. One example is that he put the first ventilator in Smith County at the time in the trunk of his automobile and took it to nearby medical facilities to use when able. He worked his way up to be the Director of the East Texas Chest Hospital and continued to look for ways to expand its services and reach. Under the leadership of Dr. Hurst, the East Texas Chest Hospital joined the University of Texas System in 1977 and officially became The University of Texas Health Center at Tyler, with an expanded mission that today includes patient care and community health, medical and health education, and biomedical and clinical research. Over the next two decades of his leadership, the UT Health Center continued to expand its clinical offerings, its research capabilities, and its medical education mission. Even after his much-celebrated retirement from the UT Health System in 1998, Dr. Hurst continued to serve, working in clinics throughout East Texas for years. At his death, Dr. Hurst had the designation “President Emeritus” for the University of Texas Health Science Center at Tyler, the institution’s current name. George and Judy Hurst raised their four children in Tyler and attended Fifth Street Presbyterian Church and later, Grace Community Church and served as an Elder at both. Outside of his medical and administrator duties, George Hurst enjoyed reading his Bible, Bible studies, men’s groups, attending Christian outreach conferences, serving his wife, children and grandchildren and others, gardening and visiting their home in Colorado. His pastor, Doug Clark, recently remarked that there was never a subject that they would be discussing that George would not have at the ready an applicable Bible verse from memory. One of his favorites was Proverbs 3:5-6. Dr. Hurst is survived by his wife Judith Hurst, his son Dr. George W. Hurst and his wife Amy, their two sons Tyler and Thomas, his daughter Kathryn Hurst, his daughter Mary H. Chaffin and her husband Chris, their three daughters Abigail, Lauren and Cara, and his son Timothy Hurst and his wife Cecilia and their two daughters Emma and Rebecca and son Andrew. A private burial service was held by the family. A Celebration of Life is scheduled for Saturday, January 6, 2024, at 11:00 a.m. at Grace Community Church located on Old Jacksonville Highway in Tyler.

Dr. George Anderson Hurst

November 3, 1933 - December 10, 2023