James Kemp

James “Jim” Kemp (Col ’58, Med ’62 CM) is retired and living in San Diego, but is active in his field as a consultant and Chief Medical Officer of a small start-up pharmaceutical company. After graduating from UVA Medical school in 1962, he completed a Pediatric internship at the University of Florida before going to Atlanta for a two-year Pediatric Residency at Emory University/Grady Memorial Hospital. He then completed two years service as a Lieutenant Commander at the U.S. Naval Hospital in San Diego. In 1965 he was accepted into the two-year Fellowship program at UC San Francisco, in Pediatric Allergy Asthma and Immunology, after which he returned to San Diego board-certified in both Pediatrics and Allergy/Immunology. He helped develop an training program at UC San Diego in Pediatric Allergy and Immunology and opened a private practice, seeing patients and doing over 400 clinical research studies with more than 200 published in peer-reviewed journals. He was President of the American Academy of Allergy Asthma and Immunology in 2000. He has been an internationally-noted speaker in his field, at numerous national and more than 35 international conferences. In his community he was active in Rotary International and was on the board of directors of the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park, California. He has two daughters and five grandchildren—the oldest just accepted to the UVA School of Law.