Jeffrey F. Moley, MD

Jeffrey Fletcher Moley, MD, chief of the Section of Endocrine and Oncologic Surgery, died Sunday, Oct. 15, 2017, at his home in Kirkwood, Missouri. He was 64.

Moley, also an associate director at the Alvin J. Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, died following a sudden cardiac event. He had been married for 30 years to Kelle Moley, MD, the university’s James P. Crane Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

“Jeff was a world-class surgeon and a pioneering researcher,” said David Perlmutter, MD, executive vice chancellor for medical affairs and dean of the School of Medicine. “He was admired by faculty here and across the globe and was a role model to younger faculty and trainees.”

For more than two decades, Moley studied and treated multiple endocrine neoplasia (MEN), rare inherited syndromes that often cause thyroid cancer and other endocrine diseases. Along with Samuel Wells Jr., MD, former chair of the Department of Surgery, Moley was part of a team that identified the genetic mutations responsible for MEN syndromes and advanced a preventive procedure involving surgical thyroid removal. Moley also operated on patients with recurrent thyroid cancer and other endocrine diseases.

“Jeff was a masterful surgeon,” said Timothy Eberlein, MD, department chair. “He delicately performed surgery to remove the thyroid gland in young children — some only a few months old — who were destined to develop an inherited form of thyroid cancer. The margin of error in these procedures is almost none, and Jeff was simply remarkable. He was uniformly admired nationally and internationally for his surgical skills.”

Moley’s research also helped to identify novel molecular targets in thyroid cancer and led clinical trials of systemic targeted therapy. Besides treating patients at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Moley worked for more than three decades for the VA St. Louis Health Care System, recently as head of surgical services.

At the hospitals, Moley trained residents and medical students. “They loved him,” Eberlein said. “He was gentle, kind and encouraging.”

Born in New York City in 1953, Moley earned his bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 1976 and medical degree from Columbia University in 1980. He completed his internship and residency, and was chief resident in general surgery, at Yale New Haven Hospital and worked as a fellow at the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). After a year on the Yale faculty, he joined the Washington University faculty in 1988.

Moley maintained a lifelong interest in history and politics. He also enjoyed sports and music. A jazz guitarist, mandolin player and vocalist, he led the Fletcher Moley Group, a local jazz and rhythm and blues band, and previously performed with Seldom Home, a bluegrass band.

In addition to his wife, Moley is survived by: three sons, Patrick, Charles and John; his mother, Janis Walton Moley; a sister, Janis McCarthy; and a brother, Roger Moley.

The Department of Surgery will establish an endowed chair in his memory.