The Department of Family Medicine at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine is saddened by the death of our founding Chair and Professor Emeritus, Roy Gerard, MD, who passed away on April 17, 2022, at the age of 97. Dr. Gerard was a pioneer and champion for the evolution of general practice to Family Medicine as a medical specialty with strong philosophical underpinnings and academic importance.
Dr. Gerard created the Roy J. Gerard Faculty Enrichment Fund which supports faculty development and visiting scholars in the Department of Family Medicine.
Dr. Gerard served as the founding Chair of the MSU-CHM Department of Family Medicine from 1974 until 1992. At the time of its founding, it was one of only nine such departments of Family Medicine in the US. As such, our department has had the privilege of “standing on the shoulders of a giant” in our discipline.
As the founding Chair, Dr. Gerard imprinted our academic department with his philosophies on the specialty of Family Medicine that still resonate today, perhaps more than ever. Because he left the Chair role 30 years ago, it is not surprising that most of our current department members did not know Dr. Gerard except through his reputation and the photo of his kindly, thoughtful gaze hanging on the department’s “Wall of Chairs.” I’d like to think that all of us actually did know Dr. Gerard subliminally through the legacy he left on how our department and discipline have evolved over the ensuing decades. He had a strong belief that the key to being a good family physician was knowing the patient, a concept he called the “Wise Physician.” His beliefs helped define the way Family Medicine was taught in our department.
One of Dr. Gerard’s quotes over the years was: “Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” (variably attributed to poets Muriel Strode or Ralph Waldo Emerson.) In an interview with Dr. Gerard for the American Academy of Family Physicians Center for the History of Family Medicine, Dr. David Henderson (assistant professor of Family Medicine) recalls “I am not sure if he thought that quote encapsulated his professional life, if it would serve me as a future family physician or if it really can be applied to all physicians seeking to learn the art of compassionate healing in the world of modern medicine. Perhaps it really applies to all. As a very skilled teacher and a perennial student I think that he would think that all of those probably fit.”
It should not be surprising that through personal family tragedy, Dr. Gerard’s opinions of medicine and family medicine were shaken, but ultimately sublimated into a call to action. Dr. Gerard told Henderson that after his wife suffered a devastating cardiac arrest in 1978, he felt broken by trying to care for her condition for several years while also tending to his family at the same time. He recalled that, “I was very angry with medicine.” That was what prompted him to speak up at a conference of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine and say, “There is no longer any Family in Family Medicine.” It was an amazing challenge to one of the classic articles of Family Medicine by HE Vandervoort in 1973 entitled, “Where is the Family in Family Medicine?” The statement also translated into change. The STFM shortly thereafter started a new committee and conference for several decades named after the Family in Family Medicine. Dr. Gerard co-chaired that committee, “Task Force for the Family,” for several years and helped bring about several curriculum guides for medical schools and residencies to help teach family-centered care.
Finally, this quote by Dr. Gerard in Family Medicine (1999) perhaps best embodies his philosophy of the role family physicians should play in medicine: “I am now convinced that listening, bearing witness, empathizing, caring and loving create wisdom and a powerful opportunity for healing.” While the discipline of Family Medicine has continued to evolve, with emphasis on Comprehensiveness, Continuity and Community Context, we would do well to follow Dr. Gerard’s call for Compassion as we seek to care for our patients and families.
The Department of Family Medicine at Michigan State University College of Human Medicine would like to express our heartfelt condolences to Dr. Gerard’s family, and our thanks for allowing us the privilege to remember him as the giant on whose shoulders we all stand.
-John vanSchagen, MD, FAAFP
Associate Professor and Senior Associate Chair
MSU Department of Family Medicine
Acknowledgements: Special thanks to David Henderson, MD, and the Michigan Academy of Family Physicians for their unique contributions to this article.
