Retirement Celebration

What a week of celebrating it has been!   There was a sweet reception ceremony in honor of my dad's retirement at the University of Tennessee Center of Health Sciences.  The school is 102 years old.  My dad has been there 45 years!  He was the youngest professor to come on board & now is one of the legends.  As a child, when someone asked me what does my dad do, I always said he teachers students how to be doctors.  My dad has spent so many years putting in so much time & hard work into his profession.  Yet he always came home & was focused on family.  I always feel like he did a great job leaving work at work.  I know he did some things at home probably, but I never remember that being a focus or taking away time from family.  I am thankful for that trait in my dad.  He is a professor of anatomy & neurobiology, also teaching embryology.   He is the best teacher the medical school has ever seen.  And I'm not just saying that because he is my dad.  Here are just some of his accomplishments:

• Published over 20 papers on cardiovascular research
• For over 20 years, has worked to prepare students for their USMLE ( United States Medical Licensing Examination)
• Taught in over 20 review courses for the past several years
• Co-author on several review books on anatomy
• Author of a dissection manual (his books are sold on Amazon!)
• Taught thousands of first year medical & dental students
• Received the Golden Apple Award for best Anatomy department teacher 70 times
• Received the outstanding teacher award for the best first-year teaching faculty from the medical class students 71 times
• One award given to faculty by students was quietly ended after he won the same award 14 out of 15 years.
• He is the most awarded faculty in all schools of UTCHS & possibly of all of the UT campuses across the state.
• Has been granted the title of Professor Emeritus
• His greatest accomplishment, being a husband, dad, & grandfather.

They had such a nice spread of food (& the best punch!) for the guests.

A few co-workers said some really nice words.

Dad was very gracious in his speech, honoring those who had helped him in the early days, along the way, & those he works among today.

He also honored his grandchildren.  5 out of 8 were there for the reception.

My brother wasn't able to be back in town & he was sad to miss, but Lynn & I were proud to stand beside our dad & John would have loved being there as well.

Old friends came out to support Dad.

Many people were thanking him for his contribution to the school, expressing how deeply he will be missed.

Another plaque!  

UT Orange

My parents 

For a retirement gift for my dad, I secretly had a UT employee help me contact thousands of past students Dad has taught.  I made a simple book full of emails from some of these students recalling memories of my dad & the influence he has made on them.  My dad was very touched by this & is so thankful for it.   

It was touching to see how many people from all over the world have been impacted as individuals & as physicians. (We even had one response from a doctor in Japan!)

one professor = thousands of doctors = millions of patients

My Dad