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Lenard Politte, MD '62, of Columbia, Mo., is the new president of the University
of Missouri Medical Alumni Organization. Politte began his two-year term as president
at the organization’s Board of Governors meeting on April 3.
Politte has received MU’s Distinguished Service Award, the highest honor presented
to an MU alumnus. He was Columbia’s first cardiologist in private practice and was
an early leader in cardiac catheterization and pacemaker implementation in mid-Missouri.
He retired from practice in 1999 and now supervises cardiology fellows as a clinical
professor of medicine at MU.
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Politte
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Politte graduated first in his class from the MU School of Medicine. After residencies
in pathology, internal medicine and cardiology, Politte joined the School of Medicine
staff and later entered the military to serve in Vietnam. During his military service
he received a distinguished service award from the Vietnamese military and the Army
Commendation Medal.
Politte returned to private practice in 1969 and became a founding member of Boone
Clinic, the first multispecialty clinic in Columbia. He also was chief of staff
at Boone Hospital Center and a founding member of the Missouri Cardiovascular Group,
the Missouri Heart Institute and Columbia Regional Hospital. In the community, Politte
has served as a trustee of Stephens College and a board member of First National
Bank, Boone Hospital Foundation and Missouri Heart Institute Foundation.
Politte has served MU as a national steering committee member of the For All We
Call Mizzou campaign, a member of the Mizzou Flagship Council, and chair of the
Chancellor’s Residence Preservation Committee. He also is past president of the
Medical School Foundation. A distinguished fellow of the Jefferson Club, Politte
also is a member of the McAlester Society, life member of the Mizzou Alumni Association
and recipient of a Faculty-Alumni Award in 1999. Politte was also awarded the first
Distinguished Service Award from Mineral Area College.
Politte and his wife, Mary Lu, have four children: Keith, Caryl, Kevin and Craig,
BS, BA '93; and four grandchildren.
Politte succeeds Michael Bukstein, MD ’70, of Hannibal, Mo., who completed his two-year
term as president on April 3. Bukstein continues to serve on the Board of Governors
Executive Committee as past president.
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The University of Missouri School of Medicine presented its most prestigious awards
on April 2, 2009, in Kansas City. The award recipients were honored during a reception
and dinner at the Kansas City Club in conjunction with the Missouri State Medical
Association’s annual conference.
The School of Medicine’s highest honor – the Citation of Merit – was awarded to
Leslie W. Miller, MD, Class of 1974, whose groundbreaking research has resulted
in new treatment innovations in the field of heart failure and transplantation.
He is professor and chief of the integrated cardiology programs at Washington Hospital
Center and Georgetown University Hospital and School of Medicine in Washington,
D.C. He also serves as the Walters Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine and Proctor
Harvey Distinguished Teacher at Georgetown University.
The Outstanding Young Physician Award is presented to distinguished alumni age 45
or younger. This year’s recipients were Antoinette L. Laskey, MD, Class of
1998, a forensic pediatrics specialist and an assistant professor of child health
services at the Indiana School of Medicine and Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis,
and Jordan D. Metzl, MD, Class of 1993, co-founder of The Sports Medicine
Institute for Young Athletes at The Hospital for Special Surgery and an associate
professor of pediatrics at Cornell Medical College in New York City.
Alumni who have distinguished themselves through community service are recognized
with the Distinguished Service Award. This year’s recipients were David A. Fleming,
MD, Class of 1976; Timothy T. Kuberski, MD, Class of 1969; and John A. Mihalevich,
MD, Class of 1970. Fleming is founding director of the MU Center for Health Ethics
and a professor of health services management and internal medicine at MU. Kuberski
is credited with pioneering the field of infectious diseases in Phoenix. Mihalevich
is an active educator with the Cox Family Practice Residency Program in Springfield,
Mo., and an organized medicine leader.
Awarded to non-alumni, the Honorary Medical Alumni Award is given to supporters
who have made special contributions to MU’s School of Medicine. This year two outstanding
MU faculty members were recognized. Randall C. Floyd, MD, is director of
maternal-fetal medicine and an associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology.
Harold A. Williamson, MD, is the new vice chancellor for University of Missouri
Health System. He also is the Jack M. and Winifred S. Colwill Endowed Chair in Family
and Community Medicine and led the Curtis W. and Ann H. Long Department of Family
and Community Medicine for 10 years.
Alumni are encouraged to contact the MU School of Medicine to make nominations for
the 53rd annual medical alumni awards to be presented in 2010. Click here for nomination information and forms.
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A variety of distinguished alumni and faculty members will deliver lectures during
the 2009 Physicians Alumni Weekend Scientific Program. The program will be held
Friday, Oct. 23, and activities will continue through Saturday, Oct. 24, as part
of MU’s homecoming.
The keynote address of the Scientific Program, the Milton D. Overholser Memorial
Lecture, will be delivered by Stephen Achuff, MD ’69, a cardiologist and David J.
Carver Emeritus Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He served
as director of Adult Cardiology Clinical Programs for 20 years at The Johns Hopkins
Hospital in Baltimore.
Other Scientific Program speakers will include:
William Banks, MD ’79, is a professor at Saint Louis University School of
Medicine with the division of Geriatrics, Department of Internal Medicine, as well
as the Department of Pharmacological and Physiological Sciences. He is editor-in-chief
of Current Pharmaceutical Design and serves on editorial boards for nine
other journals.
Irl Hirsch, MD ’84, was diagnosed with diabetes at age 6 and is now a leader
in improving treatment for patients with the disease. He is a professor of medicine
in the Division of Metabolism, Endocrinology and Nutrition at the University of
Washington School of Medicine in Seattle. He also has served as the school’s Diabetes
Treatment and Teaching Endowed Professor and medical director of the university’s
Diabetes Care Center.
John Lauriello, MD, will join MU’s School of Medicine in June as professor
and Chancellor’s Chair of Excellence in Psychiatry. Before leading MU’s Department
of Psychiatry, Lauriello served as professor and vice chair of psychiatry at the
University of New Mexico. He specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of psychotic
disorders, most notably schizophrenia.
Donlin Long, MD ’59, PhD, is Distinguished Service Professor of Neurosurgery
at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. In 1973, he became founding director
of John Hopkins’ Department of Neurosurgery. He remained neurosurgeon-in-chief at
the Johns Hopkins Hospital and director of the Department of Neurosurgery until
2000.
Leslie Miller, MD ’74, is professor and chief of the integrated cardiology
programs at Washington Hospital Center and Georgetown University Hospital and School
of Medicine in Washington, D.C. He also serves as the Walters Chair in Cardiovascular
Medicine and Proctor Harvey Distinguished Teacher at Georgetown University.
Barbara Yawn, MD ’73, is director of research for Olmsted Medical Center
and an adjunct professor of family and community health at the University of Minnesota.
In addition to her membership on the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, Yawn has
served on study sections and committees for the NIH, AMA, CDC, WHO and other leading
health organizations.
The evening of Oct. 23, the annual alumni banquet will be held at the Holiday Inn
Select Executive Center in Columbia. On Saturday, Oct. 24, an alumni tailgate will
be held before the MU vs. Texas football game. Also on Oct. 24, the classes of 1954,
1957, 1959, 1964, 1969, 1974, 1979, 1984, 1989, 1994, 1999 and 2004 will hold individual
class reunion events. The time of these class reunions will depend on game time.
All physician alumni are encouraged to attend homecoming activities. For more information,
please contact MU’s medical alumni office at 573-882-5021.
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Bentlage
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Charles Bentlage, MD, BS Med ’59, was named Citizen of the Year by the Joplin
Area Chamber of Commerce. Bentlage, 74, was born and raised in rural western Missouri.
He served in the Air Force from 1958 to 1968. He then returned to Joplin and established
a practice in general surgery in 1970. Bentlage served as president of the medical
staffs for Freeman Health System and St. John’s Regional Medical Center. He was
a founding member of the Joplin Community Clinic, where he still volunteers, and
is medical director for Access Family Medical Care. He has also served on the board
of the United Way, and he led medical missions to Mexico and the Philippines.
Othniel “Otti” Seiden, MD ’64, of Denver has written more than 30 published
books over the past 25 years (See www.boomerbookseries.com). He recently retired and now writes
full time and is a writing coach for anyone wanting to get published. He is also
founder of Doctors To The World, a 501(C)(3) charitable organization.
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Luetje
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Charles Luetje, MD ’67, retired from active medical practice in May 2009.
He practiced otolaryngology in Kansas City since 1976, when he completed a fellowship
in otology and neurotology at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.
He is founder emeritus of the Midwest Ear Institute, a not-for-profit organization
that restores hearing in totally deaf adults and children. He also was instrumental
in developing subspecialty board certification in neurotology by the American Board
of Otolaryngology. He has been active in numerous professional and community organizations.
He also served in the U.S. Air Force from 1966 to 1975, attaining the rank of lieutenant
colonel.
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Smith
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Terry Smith, MD ’75, has joined the University of Michigan Kellogg Eye Center
and Department of Internal Medicine. He also holds the Frederick G.L. Huetwell Professorship
in Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences. Smith is an endocrinologist who broken new
ground in his research on thyroid eye disease. He has advanced the understanding
of Graves’ eye disease, specifically the process by which it causes inflammation
of tissue surrounding the eye. Among Smith’s seminal discoveries are the identities
of antibodies that circulate and interact with specific receptors located in the
orbital tissue of patients with Graves’ eye disease. This immunologic aberration
also generates molecules that activate white blood cells and cells within the eye
tissues in ways that perpetuate the disease, causing inflammation, increased fat
accumulation, and scarring. Building on these findings, Smith and colleagues will
investigate novel diagnostic methods and unique therapies to assess and interrupt
the disease process, with the expectation of launching clinical trials in the near
future. Smith came to the Kellogg Eye Center from the David Geffen School of Medicine
at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he served as professor of medicine
and chief of the Division of Molecular Medicine at the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center.
He is the author of more than 150 book chapters and articles in peer-reviewed journals,
and has been awarded five patents for his research discoveries. He has been elected
to the Orbit Society, is chief scientific officer for the National Graves’ Foundation,
and serves as reviewer for numerous scientific journals. He has been funded by the
National Institutes of Health and Veterans Administration since 1983.
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Enzenauer
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Robert Enzenauer, MD ’79, has accepted the position of chief of ophthalmology
at The Children’s Hospital in Denver. He also is a professor of ophthalmology at
Rocky Mountain Lions Eye Institute, University of Colorado. He previously served
as a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center
in Memphis.
Kim Colter, MD, Res ’81, received an honorary professional degree from the
Missouri University of Science and Technology in May 2009. A physician in Washington,
Mo., Colter earned his bachelor's degree in chemical engineering from Missouri S&T
in 1973. He received a post-graduate scholarship for research at University of California-Berkeley.
He earned a master's degree in 1974 and graduated from medical school at Washington
University in 1978. In 1981, Colter completed a family medicine residency at MU,
where he served as chief resident. Colter was one of the founders of Family Health
Care in Washington, which is now a division of Patients First Health Care.
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Wright
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Kelly Wright, MD ’05, a pediatrician, has been selected for a Partners Spirit
Award by CoxHealth in Springfield, Mo. Wright completed her residency at MU after
participating in MU’s AHEC rural track training program as a medical student.
In Memoriam
Charles A. Worley, MD, BS Med ’50
Charles A. Worley, a rural Missouri family physician of 53 years, died May 27, 2009,
in Gladstone, Mo. He was 85.
Worley was born July 18, 1923, to Charles Henry and Genevieve Bear Worley in Marshall,
Mo. He attended Sweet Springs public schools from 1930–41 before going to college
at the University of Missouri in Columbia from 1941–43. Service to country interrupted
college. While in the U.S. Army during World War II from 1944–46, Worley was assigned
to the island of Luzon in Manila Bay. There, the 174th Field Station Hospital served
men who survived the Bataan Death March in the old Bilibid Prison and Japanese prisoners
in the new Bilibid Prison outside the Manila suburb of Muntinlupa City.
Worley returned home in 1946 determined to become a doctor. He married Maxine Jeanette
Frerking on Sept. 30, 1946. He completed a bachelor of science in medicine (BS Med)
at the University of Missouri in 1950 and continued training at Case Western Reserve
in Cleveland from which he received his medical degree (MD) in 1952. Expecting their
first child, the couple returned to Missouri where Worley completed postgraduate
work at Kansas City General Hospital No. 1 from 1952–53. The Missouri State Medical
Board to Practice Medicine and Surgery licensed him in 1952.
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Worley
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He and Dr. Paul Roberts began a family medical practice in 1953 in Sweet Springs,
Mo., above Whitsitt’s Drug Store in Sweet Springs. Following vaccinations, youngsters
got a “prescription” for a free ice cream cone at the drug store soda fountain.
The medical partnership continued until 1974. Dr. Worley made house calls and served
for many years as chief of staff at Sweet Springs Community Hospital, which he helped
established in 1960. He delivered an estimated 1,500 babies. In 1966, the practice
moved into a new facility at 204 Ruby St. in Sweet Springs. In 1989, he and Maxine
moved to the Lake of the Ozarks, where he practiced at Gunn Clinic from 1989–92.
Dr. Worley helped found Westlake Medical Center in Laurie, Mo., in October 1992.
His greatest joy was caring for his patients in Sweet Springs and at the Lake of
the Ozarks. He retired in July 2006, one week before his 83rd birthday.
Among Worley’s professional affiliations and accomplishments are:
- Member of the University of Missouri Medical Alumni Association, including Board
of Governors member from 1969-76.
- Preceptor for the University of Missouri in Community Health and Medical Practice
(General Practice) beginning in 1955.
- Member of the Missouri Academy of Family Physicians, 1953 to present. Worley served
as president of the organization in 1976.
- Certified in 1971 and recertified in 1978 and 1983 by the American Board of Family
Practice.
- Member of the American Academy of Family Physicians, 1966 to present. For AAFP,
he served as vice president from 1985–86 and as treasurer from 1987–90, as well
as on numerous task forces and committees.
- Member of the Missouri State Medical Association, 1953 to present.
- Member of the American Medical Association, 1953 to present.
- Member of the Pettis County Medical Society, beginning in 1954.
- Outside of medicine, Worley was a member of Immanuel Lutheran Church and past chairman
of the congregation, and past president of the Lions Club and Sweet Springs Chamber
of Commerce. He was a member of the Elks Lodge in Laurie, Mo., and the University
Club in Kansas City, Mo. He also was a member of the board of directors of Chemical
Bank (now First Community Bank). Other interests included automobiles, jazz music,
hunting, boating and fishing.
- A life member of the Mizzou Alumni Association and lifelong Missouri Tiger fan,
Dr. Worley was a football season ticket holder for 34 years and Tiger Scholarship
Fund supporter for 25 years. Before home games, he and wife Maxine tailgated with
family and friends in Lot L north of Faurot Field. The group enjoyed detailing the
Tigers’ recent successes or failures over food and drink.
Survivors include his wife, Maxine, of the home in Gladstone, Mo. The marriage was
blessed with three children: Charles Robert “Bob” and spouse Karen Sue Flandermeyer
Worley of Columbia, Virginia Ann Poehlman of Columbia, and Nancy Jane and spouse
Randall Dean Thompson of Gladstone, Mo. The six Worley grandchildren are: Charles
Christopher “Chris” and John Robert Worley; Nell Michelle and Elizabeth Jeanette
“Betsy” Poehlman; and Charles Loren “Chas” and Randall Jacob “Jake” Thompson.
Arrangements are under the direction of Campbell Lewis Funeral Home. A memorial
service will be conducted at 1:30 p.m. Monday, June 1, at Immanuel Lutheran Church
in Sweet Springs. Family and friends are invited to food and fellowship at the church
following burial with full military honors in Fairview Cemetery.
Memorial contributions are suggested to Immanuel Lutheran Church in Sweet Springs
or the University of Missouri School of Medicine.
Robert W. Clothier, MD ’65
Robert W. Clothier, 68, of Independence, Mo., died Jan. 11, 2009.
Clothier was born Jan. 12, 1940, in Dow City, Iowa, the second son of Wesley Iven
and Leila Mae Clothier. When he was an infant, his family moved to a farm in eastern
Independence, where he was raised. He graduated from Fort Osage High School in 1957,
and attended Graceland College and the University of Missouri, where he earned a
B.S. in Chemistry in 1961. A month later, he married Sharon Marie Hetrick. To this
union were born three children: Russell William, Raymond Scott, and Julie Marie.
After graduating from Medical School at the University of Missouri, Clothier interned
at Harbor General Hospital in Torrance, Calif. He spent two years as a captain in
the Air Force, serving as a general medical officer at Duluth Air Base in Duluth,
Minn. He finished his residency at UCLA before moving back to Independence with
his family.
“Dr. Bob” spent the next 38 years practicing pediatrics, caring for a generation
of Independence children. He was at various times chair of pediatrics at the Medical
Center of Independence, and chief of pediatrics at St. Mary’s Hospital of Blue Springs.
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Clothier
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Clothier was active in community affairs, serving on the boards of the Child Abuse
Prevention Association, Sunshine Center School, the Crossroads Homeless Shelter
and Youth Court. The American Business Women’s Association recognized him as Boss
of the Year for 1986. From 1988 to 1992, he represented the Third District as a
member of the Independence City Council.
He was a strong supporter of education. He spent 12 years as a Trustee of Graceland
University. He helped lead school bond initiatives for the Independence School District
in 1996 and 1998, and was currently serving his second year as a member of the School
Board. The Independence Council of PTA’s named him Citizen of the Year in 1997.
He was an active member of the East Alton congregation of the Community of Christ,
serving several terms as pastor. He spearheaded construction of a playground at
the church, which is called “Dr. Bob’s Playground.” He held the offices of High
Priest and Evangelist, and served on numerous committees for the world church.
He is survived by his wife, Sharon, of Independence; brother Richard Iven Clothier
and wife Louita, of Lamoni, Iowa; son Russell and wife Ann, of Kansas City; son
Raymond and wife Darby Ray, of Jackson, Miss; daughter Julie Bover and husband Mike,
of Independence; five grandchildren: Layne Stone Kapp, Chandler and Elena Clothier,
and Kaitlyn and Hannah Bover; and a host of friends, colleagues and patients.
The family requests contributions to the Independence School District Foundation
to benefit the Dr. Robert Clothier Scholarship Fund.
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