title: Leonard F. Peltier, MD, PhD, 1920-2003.
abstract: Leonard F. Peltier, MD, PhD, was an orthopaedic surgeon, academician, administrator, laboratory investigator, historian, and mentor. His career spanned nearly six decades, beginning with graduate education at the University of Minnesota (UM) under the auspices of Owen H. Wangensteen, MD, PhD. In addition to obtaining a PhD in physiology in the UM Graduate School, he completed general and orthopaedic surgery residencies and attained board certification in each specialty. He served in the US Army Occupation Force Medical Corps in Germany just after World War II. In 1957, at 37 years old, he assumed the chairmanship of the orthopaedic training program at the University of Kansas. In 1971, he couldn't resist the opportunity to become one of the founding members of the "start-up" University of Arizona College of Medicine, accepting an appointment as chair of the new orthopaedic training program, where he remained until his retirement in 1990. He took clinical problems to the laboratory, and made important scientific contributions, particularly in the area of fat embolism and in using calcium sulfate (plaster of Paris) to fill bone defects. He served on governing boards of national professional organizations and presided over the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma from 1980-1981. Throughout his career, he was fascinated by, and published extensively in, the history of medicine arena. Known fondly as "the professor" to many of his residents and colleagues, he had a pragmatic, honest, upbeat, and often humorous approach to life's challenges, valuing personal integrity above other virtues. He explored various eclectic interests far beyond his professional contributions while maintaining his family as a central priority. With his exemplary productivity and interests in the surgical and laboratory sciences, history of medicine, appreciation of fine arts, and perceptive and effective interactions with family, friends, patients, and colleagues, the memory of Leonard Peltier evokes the image of a modern-day Renaissance man.
authors.affiliation: Department of Orthopedic Surgery, University of Kansas School of Medicine, Kansas City, KS, USA. jfreckling@comcast.net
authors.forename: Frederick W
authors.initials: FW
authors.lastname: Reckling
authors.forename: Janolyn G
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Lo Vecchio
authors.forename: JoAnn B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Reckling
mesh_terms: D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D009985:Orthopedics / Q000266:history*; D014481:United States