ANDERSON — A prominent, retired Anderson surgeon was identified Tuesday as the driver who died in a crash while taking himself to an emergency room a day earlier.

Dr. William J. Tierney, 74, was pronounced dead at Community Hospital shortly after his car was involved in a single-vehicle accident on Vanbuskirk Road in Anderson at 5:44 p.m. Monday.

His accident was just one of at least 32 accidents across the county as ice covered roadways Monday evening; however, Tierney did not die as a result of the crash, officials said.

Madison County Deputy Coroner Marian Dunnichay said Tierney was battling terminal cancer and commonly drove himself to the emergency room for treatment.

Tierney likely died of complications from his cancer while driving himself to the hospital, Dunnichay said. “We feel like he probably succumbed to the cancer and the car just veered off the road.”

“The accident was basically secondary. He did not die from those injuries,” Dunnichay said.

Tierney was remembered Tuesday by his former colleagues at Community Hospital and Saint John’s Health System as a philanthropist and gifted surgeon.

Tierney served as chief of surgery at both Saint John’s and Community hospitals and worked as a surgeon for 28 years. In the years leading up to and following his retirement, Tierney completed several medical mission trips to Haiti and the Dominican Republic, using his medical experience to help those in need.

Katy Harrison-Troxell of Community Hospital said the staff was reeling in the wake of Tierney’s death, and from Sunday’s additional tragedy involving a nurse.

Community Hospital nurse Xavier Joy Tillford was killed in a car accident on County Road 200 East, or Rangeline Road, on her way to work just before 7 a.m. Sunday.

The hospital set up a fund for Tillford’s four surviving children and her husband and immediately brought in a Critical Incident Team to help staff members cope with the loss of the 33-year-old nurse.

The news of Tillford’s death was compounded by Tierney’s passing, Harrison-Troxell said.

“It just comes as a real shock one day after we lost one of our nurses. We’re such a close-knit family. It is just another great shock to us after what happened on Sunday,” Harrison-Troxell said.

Dr. Charles King of Saint John’s Health System said he had lunch with Tierney at Eva’s Pancake House on Monday hours before his friend of 26 years died.

According to King, 83, Tierney’s battle with lung cancer began 15 years ago when he went to look at a patient’s X-rays. At the time, Tierney decided to take an X-ray of his own chest due to an ongoing cough, and discovered a massive tumor in his left lung.

Tierney initially refused to seek chemotherapy or radiology treatments, King said. “He wrote his own obituary and gave a half million dollars to his medical school.”

Friends and family soon convinced Tierney to visit renowned oncologist Dr. Lawrence Einhorn at Indiana University, the same doctor who saved bicyclist Lance Armstrong’s life, King said.

Einhorn shrunk and removed Tierney’s tumor but over the years, King said, small tumors reappeared in Tierney’s lungs.

Most recently, Tierney’s pulmonary artery had begun bleeding out, causing the surgeon to seek treatment at Community Hospital.

Though he’d retired from general surgery in 1996, Tierney’s influence never left the Anderson medical community.

He was often called in to offer surgical advice at both Community and Saint John’s hospitals. “A lot of time his judgment was so good that I think some of the surgeons would ask that he scrub in with them even after he retired,” King said.

After he retired, Saint John’s Health System created a scholarship in Tierney’s name, according to Randy Titus, communications specialist with Saint John’s. The William J. Tierney Healthcare Scholarship awarded $1,000 every year since 2000 to an employee or dependent of an employee at the hospital seeking a degree in the healthcare field.

Keith Trent of Community Hospital said the Tierney Awards were given to nurses annually in recognition of excellence in their field. The award was given out more than 45 times. Tierney served on both the hospital board and the hospital’s foundation board.

In 2007, Tierney and fellow physician Dr. Robert McCurdy were honored by the Community Hospital Foundation for their service to the community.

Tierney’s family could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

“We’re all going to miss him big time,” King said.