Dr. Bill Purdy joined Duke Student Health in the spring of 1998. In 2004 he was named Interim Medical Director, and on July 1, 2005 he became the first Executive Director of the Duke Student Health Center.

A 1968 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Purdy took five years off between college and medical school. During those years he was a member of the US Olympic Rowing team, a Peace Corps volunteer in Uruguay, and a schoolteacher in Concord, Massachusetts. He graduated from Case Western University School of Medicine in 1977 and spent the next three years at the University of Wisconsin, Madison completing his internship and residency in Pediatrics.

In 1980, Dr. Purdy and his family moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan where he spent the next 13 years in private practice, followed by five years as the head of the outpatient clinic in the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine at the Michigan State University Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies. While there, he was also medical director of the Spina Bifida and Multi-handicapped clinics.

Dr. Purdy has an interest in adolescents, college health, sports medicine and patients with special needs.  In his free time he wins golf tournaments and eats lots of chocolate chip cookies.