Olson Huff, MD
August 6, 1936 ~ July 24, 2024
NCMS Life member Olson Huff, MD, died Wednesday, July 24.
He was 87 years old.
Dr. Olson Huff completed his Pediatric Residency at what was then Charlotte Memorial Hospital. During his 14 years of clinical practice in Charlotte, he completed a Fellowship in Developmental Disabilities from UNC-Chapel Hill. The family moved to Asheville in 1982 for him to concentrate on Developmental Pediatrics. He began the team-based Olson Huff Center for Child Development and became the first Medical Director of the Ruth and Billy Graham Children’s Health Center at Mission Hospital where he brought many pediatric specialists to Asheville and began the children’s dental program and Tooth Bus. At his retirement dinner in 2001, the Children’s Health Center was named Mission Children’s Hospital. He then co-chaired raising the 11 million dollars for the Reuter Children’s Outpatient Center.
When he was president of the NC Pediatric Society, he led NC in adopting Health Choice, the federal Child Health Insurance Program. The American Academy of Pediatrics recognized his work as the Chair of the Academy’s Federal Affairs Committee, by stating, “With gratitude for your compassion, dedication, and tireless advocacy on the behalf of our nation’s children. You dare us to run when others would simply walk.”
Dr. Huff joined the NCMS in 1968.
The North Carolina Medical Society extends its deepest condolences.
Read Dr. Huff’s full obituary here.