Logan, Joseph (1914–1999), physician and medical administrator, was born 15 December 1914 at Ballinamore, Co. Leitrim, son of John Logan, victualler, and Mary Logan (née Logan). His brother was the author Dr Patrick Logan. Educated first at St Mary's College, Dundalk, he then entered UCD, where he obtained a degree in medicine (1939). Having decided to specialise in the treatment of tuberculosis, he went to England and took up a position at the Cheshire Joint Sanatorium, Market Drayton, Shropshire. This was one of the leading centres in Britain and Ireland for the treatment of tuberculosis at the time, and he became chief assistant there. He obtained a diploma in public health (1944), and later took the MD degree (1946). On 10 March 1948 he began his appointment as resident medical superintendent (RMS) or medical director at the Peamount Sanatorium, Newcastle, Co. Dublin, where he remained for thirty years (1948–78). It is for his contribution to the treatment of tuberculosis and his management of the sanatorium that he is chiefly remembered.
At the time of Logan's appointment Peamount was the largest sanatorium in Ireland and had a reputation for innovation. He immediately sought more medical staff and six new appointments were made in the year of his arrival, including Jack Sherry and Ernest Collins, who were to remain in post as his deputies for more than twenty years. Although he was an expert in the traditional treatment of tubercular collapse, popular from 1936 to 1956, he expanded the surgical treatment of the disease in his early years at the sanatorium. He also recognised the real benefits offered by new drugs that were becoming available; it took decades before a protocol for the best use of antibiotics was developed, but in the early years Logan and the staff at Peamount took part in clinical trials for the UK Medical Research Council of different drug treatments. In 1950, soon after his arrival at Peamount, Logan called on the board of management to reinstate the hospital industries. These were small commercial undertakings based in the hospital grounds, which employed former patients. Logan believed passionately in the positive psychological effects of employability for former patients trying to re-enter the workplace. He detailed these in a paper entitled ‘The employment of ex-patients in a sanatorium’ (Irish Journal of Medicine, Apr. 1956, 185–9), and called for ‘official encouragement’ to local authority hospitals to employ former tuberculosis patients.
A colleague, Harry Counihan, said of Logan that he inspired great loyalty among the staff at Peamount and set high standards, achieving them with ‘flinty determination’. He was diligent in organising meetings at which staff were informed of up-to-date methodologies. As the importance of tuberculosis waned and other pulmonary complaints, including lung cancer, became more common, he added them to his expertise. It was as an able and effective administrator that he made many significant contributions to the sanatorium. He instilled discipline in a pleasant way in the long-term patients, many of them young people from outside Dublin, and managed the budget of the hospital economically, spending wisely when money became available. He adapted to change with an open mind. Peamount's name was officially changed from ‘sanatorium’ to ‘hospital’ in 1962, and in response to an urgent need for accommodation, the hospital began to accept adults with learning disabilities. He greeted the first of his new patients in 1963 and did all he could to develop services for them. He was dedicated to his work and lived close to the hospital in the house provided for the RMS, and thus was readily available to his staff and patients. He never ran a private practice and avoided professional recognition for his work. In preparation for his retirement, he withdrew from Peamount to lead the tuberculosis programme in Lesotho (1978–81), which was funded by the Irish government. From his base in Maseru, he established a treatment regime for tuberculosis that was appropriate for Lesotho and it was still in operation at the time of his death.
Although he rarely had time off, Logan enjoyed hunting, fishing, and golf. He married twice. With his first wife, Marguerite, he had five children; she died suddenly in 1953. In the last years of his life he lived with his daughter Una, also a doctor, in Co. Mayo. He died on 16 January 1999, survived by his second wife, Ita, and four of his five children.