Our campus community recently gathered to celebrate Garold Minns, M.D., dean emeritus, and his 45 years of service to KU School of Medicine-Wichita. Many donned their favorite hats in his honor, and speakers shared stories about his gentle leadership, calm demeanor and personal attention to his students, resident physicians, patients and colleagues — even going so far as to pull a Kansas map from his pocket one time for someone traveling across Kansas. A slideshow detailed his education, academic leadership, accolades and photos from his med student days and as dean.

Speakers included Laura Tatpati, M.D., dean of KU School of Medicine-Wichita; Akinlolu Ojo, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, executive dean of KU School of Medicine; Robert Klein, Ph.D., vice chancellor for KU Medical Center Academic & Student Affairs; and Donna Sweet, M.D., KU School of Medicine-Wichita professor and HIV specialist.

Of Minns’ decades of service, Ojo said, “His tireless efforts, patience and dedication have shaped the KU School of Medicine-Wichita campus and the school’s tri-campus medical education program into what they are today.”

He highlighted Minns’ steadfast leadership in the expansion of the Wichita school from a two- to four-year campus in 2011, “growing the local student body by over 80% and creating the opportunity for students to complete all four years of medical school in Wichita for the first time in the history of the campus.”

Ojo commended Minns’ next major focus to grow the campus class size. “These efforts have evolved into the development of the Wichita Biomedical Campus under his leadership. The state-of-the-art facility will advance the medical center’s vision of improving lives and communities in Kansas and beyond through partnership and innovation in education, research and health care, as we matriculate 70 first-year students to the campus starting in fall 2027”

“I will always be thankful for his hands-off approach to my career,” Sweet said. “Throughout my career he has given me freedom to seek and choose opportunities and move outside the local venue. He gave me the freedom to travel. He’s given me the ability to do some national and international work. He valued the things I was doing in trying to advocate for patients and rural health issues and the things that were important to me. I know he’s done the same for many, many faculty.”

Klein said that one could not hear the words “School of Medicine Wichita” without immediately thinking of Minns. “The words are synonymous. Today, we honor not only a remarkable career, but a legacy of leadership, compassion and unwavering commitment to public health and medical education.”

He talked about Minns’ impact in classrooms, clinics and beyond the walls of our institution. During the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing endemic, “he navigated the tightrope between politics and public health,” Klein said. “His leadership helped guide our communities through unprecedented challenges, strengthening the health and resilience of Kansans across the region.”

Klein also shared a story about a former staff member who was going on a work trip to Wichita and was taking her daughter along for company. She told Minns they liked to take side roads for scenery. “Without missing a beat, Garold reached into his pocket and pulled out a map of Kansas … another example of Garold’s uncanny ability to be in front of the situation, anticipating what will be needed, and provide expertise and resources to accomplish the task at hand.”

Tatpati recalled she learned how to be a good educator from Minns and former faculty member Scott Moser, M.D., while she was a clerkship director. She agreed with all the speakers about the amount of knowledge and wisdom Minns brought to every encounter and it went beyond general education. “He would bring a paper about gynecology or something else that he knew was of interest to me — like Nebraska, because he takes that extra time to know the details about everyone that he encounters in the most magical way possible.”

“It has been so impressive to me how he approaches everything so thoughtfully,” she said, “and his quiet approach to things I think somehow might make people not understand the wide, varied way he looks at things. He’s never going one direction; he’s always looking at things in all directions, ensuring he’s really considering everybody when bringing this one medical machine together with three campuses. I think it’s just perfect.”

She went on to say that she takes in as many lessons as she can from Minns and “thankfully, we get a lot of opportunities to refresh on ideas and think about them again together. It’s one of the best blessings of my life to spend that time and be able to think about everything and sometimes it’s about work and sometimes it’s not about work, it’s about the broader world because sometimes you need to sit and think about what’s happening around you even outside of just the classroom. He’s so wonderful about that.”

The service recognition plaque presented to Minns by Tatpati noted a “deep appreciation” for his unwavering dedication, visionary leadership and outstanding contributions to the growth, excellence and integrity of KU School of Medicine-Wichita.

“Sometimes I feel like I don’t deserve all that,” Minns said at the end of the comments. “I think your memory has been dulled over the years,” he said as attendees chuckled. “But I know people spoke from their hearts and I appreciate that.”

Regarding the maps in his pocket, he said, “I do tend to carry a map around because my goal is to improve the health of Kansas and how can you improve the health of something when you don’t even know the state. There’s a lot of land west of us, west of Kansas City and unless you’ve traveled it or you’ve looked at a map and seen what’s out there, you don’t even know what you’re talking about. I use that map to remind me there’s more to Kansas than just Wichita and Kansas City. And sometimes it comes in handy when someone wants to know how to get somewhere.”

On a lighter side, Minns took a moment to explain one of the slides showing a photo of him examining a barefoot woman in shorts.

“I would be remiss if I did not mention one slide of me examining somebody when I was in medical school. We had our physical diagnosis course and they tell us how we need to do it and then they said, ‘Go out and practice.’ Well, where am I supposed to go out and practice? I’m not allowed to go out and see the patients in the hospital yet so guess who gets practiced on? Your spouse. I just wanted to explain what that one was. That was not a patient who came to my office looking like that.”

Thoughtfully, he said, “I appreciate what she’s done over the years as well as being my experimental model for physical diagnosis, so thank you, Nancy, for all you’ve done.”

“It’s been an amazing journey,” he concluded. “Yes, I’ve been successful in a lot of things, but I couldn’t have done it alone. I appreciate all the faculty and staff here helping me achieve what we’ve achieved at this campus.”

Ojo’s words summed up Minns’ journey thus far: “I could speak for an hour but would still not do justice to articulate the significant impact that Dr. Minns has made in our organization over his 45 years of service. I have only scratched the surface.”

View additional photos from the event in the Flickr photo album.