How J. Mack Worthington, MD, is Supporting ‘FUTURE’ Physicians
Remarking on 45+ years of treating patients and training the next generation of family physicians, J. Mack Worthington, MD, had this to say:
“I had a lot of fun over the years. I never really worked a day in my life.”
While it may have felt like anything but work, Worthington’s legacy made an impact that echoes today. He still hears from grateful patients and their loved ones decades after caring for them.
He recalled the time one family called him, worried. “They were bathing their five-year-old girl and noticed something wrong with her belly,” he said. Worthington said to bring her in and that’s when he discovered the mass — a rare kidney cancer known as a Wilms tumor.
“Well, this past fall, I got a voicemail that said, ‘I’m trying to see if you’re the Dr. Worthington that saved my life,’” he said. Worthington called back and spoke with that little girl from 1979, now grown, married and very thankful.
As a professor, Worthington also made a lasting impression on the family physicians he taught and mentored. Retired now, he continues to influence the future of family medicine through his involvement with the AAFP Foundation. Most recently, he established an endowed scholarship supporting Family Medicine Leads, the Foundation’s signature education program.
Worthington noted that his students who attended AAFP’s National Conference (now called FUTURE) learned a lot, made valuable connections and returned with a stronger interest in family medicine. This inspired the doctor and his wife, Donna, a registered nurse, to set up a fund to help medical students from Tennessee attend FUTURE. Sadly, Donna passed away in 2024, and the scholarship is a fitting tribute to the couple’s commitment to family medicine.
Interestingly, Worthington didn’t start out in medicine. After earning a degree in math and a master’s in applied math, he worked as an aero systems engineer and taught mathematics for several years. He enjoyed working with people and decided to pursue family medicine so he could treat all ages.
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Worthington’s career took him from Texas to Kansas to a United States Air Force base in the Florida Panhandle, before he accepted a position at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis. Fifteen years later, he was asked to start a Family Medicine department and residency program at UT College of Medicine at Erlanger in Chattanooga, where he remained for 30 years.
“I think every day about all the residents I’ve trained. They’re all out there seeing patients today,” he said.
Worthington has been an active member of the AAFP and supporter of the AAFP Foundation for many years. He served as the AAFP delegate to the American Medical Association for 16 years and was president of the Tennessee Academy of Family Physicians.
“One of the jobs of leadership is finding more leadership,” he said. “The Family Medicine Leads program takes promising leaders and trains them. It’s a worthy endeavor and supporting that is really important.”