Don Meredith: A Sense of Commitment
Don Meredith, M.D. (B.S. Med. ’52), and his wife, Marge, are committed people. After a lifetime of committing to marriage, family, education, work and play, the Merediths have turned their commitment to medical education, specifically with a $500,000 endowment for medical student scholarships. They want the “best of the best” students to afford an opportunity to attend the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences.
Don Meredith’s lifelong commitment to medicine started at a young age. His father, C.J. Meredith, M.D., a physician and surgeon, and his mother, Grace, a registered nurse, practiced in Valley City, ND. Growing up in a medical family, Don always knew he wanted to become a doctor, but the government had different plans for him. Six days after his high school graduation, he was drafted and served as an infantryman in the U.S. Army’s Second Division, stationed in Fort Louis, Washington, from 1945 to 1947.
After his discharge, he returned to Valley City and enrolled at Valley City State University for several quarters before transferring to the pre-med program at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks, home to the state’s only medical school.
At 6-feet-6, Meredith had been the tallest high school basketball player in North Dakota in the 1940s and he continued with a successful basketball career while at UND. He was elected to the All Decade team of the ‘40s.
“We played basketball in the old armory-we were a good team!” Meredith reflects. His fourth year would have been in the new Hyslop Center but he completed his B.A. degree in only three years and was admitted to medical school instead.
“School was challenging. Class started at 8 a.m. and finished at 5 p.m. We spent Saturdays studying in the lab. There were never enough hours in the day. Everything was new and interesting, and the excellent faculty were very helpful.”
“I was privileged to receive an excellent education at UND. That made it possible for Marge and me to give something back to our universities and to the communities in which we have lived and practiced. It is the obligation, of those who can, to support their university by giving something back in appreciation of their education.”
Don Meredith, M.D.
(B.S. Med. ’52) |
After receiving his Bachelor of Science in Medicine degree in 1952 from the UND medical school, Meredith transferred to Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO, where he completed his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1954.
He completed his surgical residency in the University of Minnesota orthopaedic surgery program in 1959. At that same time, he and his fraternity
brother and residency partner, Paul Gislason, M.D., discussed developing an orthopedic practice in Mankato, MN. The Merediths were planning to return to North Dakota, but the lure of developing an independent practice, and doing it with a friend, prevailed.
“We have never regretted our decision,” said Meredith.
Founded by Gislason in 1957, the Orthopaedic and Fracture Clinic, P.A., was only two years old when the Merediths arrived. The specialty of orthopedics was relatively new in southern Minnesota and they specialized in unique procedures not offered by family practitioners; in fact, no one in the area did them. When Meredith retired in the early 1990s, the clinic had grown from 2 to 10 board-certified orthopedic surgeons.
Much of Meredith’s considerable philanthropy has been committed to helping people get a better education. He has also established endowments at Valley City State University and Minnesota State University-Mankato, for students majoring in science or mathematics.
His wife, Marge (Rabe), was raised in Dickinson, ND, and graduated with a degree in dietetics from UND. The couple met at a Delta Gamma/Beta Theta Pi dance at the Beta house in 1949. They have been married for 55 years and have five children: Janet, Nancy, Don II, Bruce and Barbara, and 13 grandchildren. They reside in Sun Lakes, AZ, in the winter and Mankato in the summer.
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