In Memoriam: Dr. J. Lincoln Arceneaux

Published on Monday, March 18, 2024

The Medical Center extends its sympathy to the family of a former faculty member in appreciation for the loved one’s contributions to the academic health sciences center.

Dr. J. Lincoln Arceneaux

Dr. J. Lincoln Arceneaux of Madison, associate dean emeritus of student affairs for the School of Medicine and associate professor emeritus of microbiology and immunology, a beloved figure who used his soft, quiet voice to instruct, counsel and comfort thousands of students during much of his 38-year career at the Medical Center, died on Sunday, March 31. He was 82.

He was “in the business of taking care of students,” said Dr. Jerry Clark, currently the student liaison in the School of Medicine and previously, for years, Arceneaux’s successor as chief student affairs officer and associate dean for student affairs.

“Perhaps no single individual had more of an impact on medical students outside the classroom than Lincoln Arceneaux.

“For more than a generation he provided guidance, resources and encouragement with a soft touch and a simple kindness. I’m not sure we’ll ever be able to measure his true impact, but I can assure you it was tremendous.”

In 2019, the Medical Center acknowledged that impact with the naming of the J. Lincoln Arceneaux Conference Room, the same room where the Lafayette, Louisiana, native met with his colleagues to decide which applicants to accept to medical school.

A devotee of south Louisiana culture and cuisine, especially the legendary turducken, he was a true and faithful Ragin’ Cajun, having graduated from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette before earning his PhD in microbiology at the University of Texas at Austin in 1968.

At Princeton University, he completed a National Institutes of Health fellowship before joining UMMC, where he was recruited as an assistant professor of microbiology in 1970.

Six years later, medical students named Arceneaux the Preclinical Professor of the Year. In 1978, he was appointed assistant dean for student affairs in the School of Medicine and was promoted to associate dean in 1992.

On campus, he was not the only Arceneaux teaching students. He was married to Dr. Jean Arceneaux, associate professor emeritus of microbiology and immunology.

Lincoln Arceneaux served as a mentor and father figure not only to medical students, but eventually to dental students and those seeking graduate degrees as well. Gentle and thoughtful, whether delivering bad news or good, he was also advisor to the Associated Student Body.

One of the students who sought him out was Dr. Brad Ingram, now interim chair of the Department of Neurology at UMMC.

“So much of the time, there were student issues that just needed stability, experience or a peaceful anecdote, and Dr. Arceneaux seemed to have endless reserves of those qualities,” said Ingram, a 2005 medical school graduate.

“But more than that, we always knew that he cared for us, both inside the walls of this institution and outside of it. His quiet pools of wisdom (about medicine and about life) were the foundation of the day-to-day existence in the School of Medicine at UMMC for many, many years.”

For much of Arceneaux’s time at the Medical Center, Ingram noted, his administrative aide was the late Virginia Covington, who later retired as project manager in the School of Medicine’s Office of Student Affairs.

“UMMC has not likely seen a single duo who has so affected the future of Mississippi’s physicians before or since,” Ingram said.  

About two years before he retired, UMMC’s 2006 yearbook was dedicated to “J. Lincoln Arceneaux, PhD.”

Four years ago, this month, during the dedication of the conference room bearing his name, Dr. LouAnn Woodward, vice chancellor for health affairs and dean of the School of Medicine, said Arceneaux “touched the lives of some 3,000 students. And one of them was me.”

Four years after his retirement, Arceneaux had suffered a hemorrhagic stroke, which occurs when blood from an artery begins bleeding into the brain; it affected his ability to speak. Fighting to regain that power, he underwent therapy at Methodist Rehabilitation Center; during the 2019 dedication, he was able to express himself to those gathered in his honor.

“For me it has been a very special opportunity to be at the Medical Center [at a time] when so much needed to be done,” he said then.

“Thank you, each one of you, for taking the time to be able to come here  ... so I can get to see you and say hello again.”

His survivors include wife Jean Arceneaux, son Jacques Arceneaux, both of Madison, and brothers and sisters.

Parkway Funeral Home in Ridgeland is handling funeral arrangements. Visitation is 11 a.m.-noon Tuesday at St. Richard Catholic Church in Jackson. A funeral mass will be held at the church starting at noon, followed by a graveside ceremony at Parkway Memorial Cemetery in Ridgeland.

Memorial donations may be made in Arceneaux’s name to The MIND Center at UMMC.