Gordon L. Telford, MD, FACS, professor emeritus at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, will initiate the 2023 Named Lecture series this morning, immediately following the Opening Ceremony, by examining the life of a seminal figure in the history of surgery—ACS Founder Franklin H. Martin, MD, FACS.
“It is a great honor to be asked by the College to present the annual Martin Memorial Lecture and have that presentation be about Dr. Martin and his highly accomplished career,” Dr. Telford said.
Dr. Martin spent the first 20 years of his life in Wisconsin and experienced a typical rural upbringing, working as a farm laborer, brickmaker, janitor, schoolteacher, and millwright.
“Later in life, Dr. Martin said that he learned early on that hard work yielded results and that he never lost that drive,” Dr. Telford said.
After medical school and internship, Dr. Martin practiced obstetrics and gynecology in Chicago, Illinois, and during his career, he was a highly accomplished physician, administrator, and leader. According to Dr. Telford, it was that same rural upbringing in Wisconsin that gave Dr. Martin the motivation and skills to become a great leader.
“Because of the values his family had imbued in him, Dr. Martin had the strength of character, the self-confidence, and the ability to proceed when others might have wavered,” Dr. Telford said, adding that Dr. Martin’s organizational skills gave rise to foundings of the journal Surgery, Gynecology, and Obstetrics in 1905, Clinical Congress of the Surgeons of North America in 1910, and the American College of Surgeons in 1913.
And for Dr. Telford, the significance of examining Dr. Martin’s meritorious career goes beyond simple academic and historical respect; he draws parallels to his own life.
“Like Dr. Martin, I come from a farm background and that makes the opportunity to give this presentation all the more special to me,” Dr. Telford said. His own great-great grandfather, like Dr. Martin's grandfather, started farming in Iowa in the mid-1880s, and Dr. Telford’s family still owns that farm 160 years later. He even continues to help with the harvest in recent years.
Humble beginnings and a rural environment in early life are just one path a surgeon might course, and health leaders can look at Dr. Martin’s journey to see the value of diverse life experiences.
“He is a great example of the reason why an organization needs members from all backgrounds to flourish,” Dr. Telford said.
The Martin Memorial Lecture begins at 9:00 am in Exhibit Hall B2 of the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. The lecture will be livestreamed for registrants who could not attend, and the on-demand version will be available soon after the presentation.
