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“Little did I know that I’d spend my life in the bleachers,” says Lynda Olerud.
She’s not exaggerating by all that much. Lynda Olerud married John E. Olerud, M.D. ’71, Res. ’76, a minor-league baseball catcher, in 1968. The Oleruds’ 39-year-old son, John G. Olerud, had a 17-year career in the major leagues. And now there’s a grandson in Little League.
The family’s baseball tradition began at Washington State University, and continued after they moved to Seattle, where John had been accepted at the UW School of Medicine. The Oleruds would spend two quarters in Seattle, and then leave for spring training. After baseball season was over, they’d return to Seattle. But after seven years, says John Olerud, it became clear that “the baseball wasn’t working out as well as the medicine.”
A split personality
Olerud found his inspiration to study medicine as a young boy in Lisbon, N.D. The town had only two doctors, and one of them, a quiet, competent man, was the father of his two best friends. Olerud remembers that he let the boys inspect crushed rocks under the microscope in his office. “He was an inspiration for medicine,” says Olerud.
Still, inspiration and achievement are two different things. For a student like Olerud, who was also a professional ballplayer, medical school posed some challenges. The faculty was sympathetic, though, and allowed Olerud a flexible schedule.
“I was fortunate that I came to a medical school where they were willing to put up with my split personality,” says Olerud.
Reducing the gap
After a residency in internal medicine, Olerud did a residency with George F. Odland, one of the founders of the Division of Dermatology. As the current head of the division, Olerud has taken Odland’s emphasis on research and education as his own.
“I think a lot of people, if they think about dermatology, don’t think about it as taking care of sick people and doing meaningful, important research in skin biology,” says Olerud. Rather, he says, people think primarily of more cosmetic treatments. And the prospect of private dermatological practice, he says, can be tempting to potential teachers and researchers.
“If it’s really difficult to get funding to do scholarship and research, then it’s a challenge to convince people that that’s what they should do,” says Olerud. “In dermatology, you can earn a lot of money out in the community seeing patients, or doing more cosmetic types of work.”
Philanthropy, though, makes a real difference in academic medicine. “Endowed research and teaching funds are a terrific way to keep bright, mission-driven people at the University,” says Olerud. “They reduce the funding gap between academic medicine and private practice.”
Rounding the plate
“We wanted to create a vehicle for funding the training and teaching part of dermatology,” says John Olerud.
In creating the John E. Olerud Endowed Professorship for Dermatology Training in 2008, the Oleruds are helping preserve the division’s educational mission so that future generations of dermatologists will be well trained in research and patient care.
Lynda Olerud, who earned a teaching degree at WSU, says the gift reflects the core values of both Oleruds. “I guess it’s appropriate that when we finally get to where we can give some money, it’s for teaching,” she says.
John Olerud agrees. “If you believe in education, if you believe it’s important, you should get behind it,” he says.
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