Dr. Paul Jagger, 72; on UC San Diego Medical School’s Initial Faculty

Dr. Paul I. Jagger, 72, a founding member of the UC San Diego School of Medicine’s faculty and first medical director of the university’s hospital, died Feb. 4 at San Diego Hospice of cancer. He lived in La Jolla.

A native of Chula Vista, Jagger earned degrees from the University of Redlands and the UCLA School of Medicine. He completed his studies at Boston University Medical Center and what is now Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and taught briefly at Harvard. He was also a Navy ward officer at what is now the San Diego Naval Medical Center in Balboa Park.

When he started work at UC San Diego in 1968, Jagger became the first director of the medical school’s residency program and helped convert the former San Diego County Hospital into the UC San Diego Medical Center by 1974. In 1982, he was named the center’s first medical director, a position he held until his retirement in 1995.

In addition to his medical center work, teaching and practice, Jagger held several other administrative positions, including associate dean for graduate education, chairman of the medical executive committee, assistant dean of student affairs for the School of Medicine and director of the General Clinical Research Center.