George Ragsdale

Type of Porphyria

Erythropoietic Protoporphyria (EPP)

GEORGE RAGSDALE  was born and raised in DeKalb, IL, 60 miles west of Chicago. He lived there until he went to Cornell University to study Chemical Engineering.   At  40 years old , he decided to attend law school.  while  still working full time, George  got his  JD and MBA degrees.  In  1992, he opened a private, family law practice and after about two years, took a job as general counsel at an engineering firm. After five years of that, I returned to "corporate america" and retired as assistant general counsel at Georgia-Pacific in Atlanta in July 2015.  In fall 2015, George began teaching a course in business law and ethics are his local college in St Simon, Georgia where he now lives and continues to teach to date.   

As a child growing up in Illinois, he loved baseball, basketball and golf but was always very miserable being outdoors.  George went through every allergy test known to man and the only conclusion was that he had a "contact allergy."   Since no one could tell him what allergy he had, he continued suffered the burning symptoms.   After every game or contest, George paid a great price for having been outside in the sun.   He was finally diagnosed with EPP at the age of 34 by a dermatologist that my wife insisted I go see.  At that time, he  had been married only five years - now they are in their 46th year of marriage!!   George gives full credit to his wife  or  being able to know about EPP and help him face the disease and look for treatment.

George says, “ I am now in my third EPP drug trial. I started in Birmingham, AL in the Scenesse trial and have subsequently been in a Mitsubishi trial and now in the Bitopertin trial.   George has much to share with the MAB board so reach out to him with your suggestions.