Winter 2011: Campaign Chronicle

A new endowed fund honors Thomas Whitesides (foreground). John Heller is helping build the endowment.

Philanthropist Honors Emory Surgeon with Major Gift

Grateful for having received outstanding patient care, a philanthropist has committed $1 million—and so far thirty-five former spine surgery fellows have matched the gift—with the goal of establishing the Thomas E. Whitesides Jr., MD, Endowed Chair in Orthopaedic Spine Surgery.

Whitesides 51BS 55M, a professor emeritus in the Department of Orthopaedics, served as a faculty member for forty years and chaired the department for eight years. He founded the Spine Fellowship Program in 1989 and directed the program until retiring from clinical practice in 2000. He remains active in teaching, editing, and research.

Spine surgeon John Heller, professor of orthopaedics at the Emory Spine Center and current director of the Spine Fellowship Program, challenged all of the program’s forty-six graduates to match the anonymous gift.