Kathy Melhorn, M.D., spent her career caring for children and closing gaps in care for the most vulnerable — those suffering from abuse and neglect.

Mark Melhorn, M.D., spent decades as a hand and upper extremity surgeon guided by the “principle of treating each patient as if they were family.”

Both physicians — Kathy retired last year, Mark moved to a group practice after 35 years solo — trained at KU Wichita residencies, practiced in the city and had impacts across Kansas and beyond. Now, they’re giving back to KU School of Medicine-Wichita and the programs that nurtured them.

Having seen needs and funding uncertainties, the Melhorns are endowing funds to help ensure that the programs they care so much about can continue their work. Officially, the Katherine Melhorn, M.D., Endowed Chair of Pediatrics and the J. Mark Melhorn, M.D., Endowed Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery, the funds allow the chairs of each department to meet current priorities and adjust as needs evolve. The endowed chairs are the first for both departments and only the second and third endowed chairs on the Wichita campus.

“Medical education is costly — not only for individual residents but also for residency programs and affiliated hospitals,” says Mark, KUSM-Wichita volunteer faculty since 1986. “Day-to-day expenses have steadily increased, while financial support has declined. Maintaining excellence in education, training and care requires endowed funds now and in the future. This reality has provided us with a meaningful opportunity to give back.”

In addition to her practice, Kathy was a full-time faculty member at KUSM-Wichita, serving as pediatric clinic director from 1986 to 2009 and residency director from 1994 to 2011.

“Endowing a fund sends a message that I trust this department will continue to provide the high level of patient care, resident education and research that so many of us benefitted from over the years,” Kathy says of the donation, which supports an emphasis on child abuse and neglect.

Finding their callings

Kathy, a native of Washington, D.C., and Mark met in the chemistry lab at McPherson College where she’d been drawn by the science program and his father had been college president. Two years apart, both went to KU School of Medicine in Kansas City, with Mark graduating there and Kathy finishing in Wichita because he’d started residency in the city’s orthopaedics program. Kathy pursued her residency in Wichita as well.

“Pediatrics was my second clinical rotation in medical school, and even though I enjoyed other clinical experiences, I kept gravitating toward the children — their vulnerability, resiliency and energy, even under the worst of circumstances, seemed extraordinary,” says Kathy. The couple, who married the summer after Kathy’s college graduation, have two adult children and three grandchildren.

Mark had been drawn to medicine by the scientific challenge and opportunity to work with people. Summer jobs in construction and welding cultivated his love of working with his hands — he still enjoys woodworking — and made orthopaedics a natural fit. During residency, he discovered the “complexity and mechanics of the hand” matched his interests and personality. He pursued his surgical subspecialty with a fellowship at the University of Southern California. Kathy, meanwhile, had found a calling and pursued it during a fellowship, also in Los Angeles, that emphasized child abuse evaluations.

How it will be used

Brian Pate, M.D., chair of the Department of Pediatrics, and Brad Dart, M.D., chair of the Department of Orthopaedics and program director, recognize the trust that’s been placed in their departments and are formulating plans to best use the resources. Faculty support is at the heart of the plans.

The orthopaedic residency, among the city’s oldest, has long relied even more than most residencies on the good will of volunteer faculty. The program — which has only three part-time paid faculty, including Dart — has produced a significant number of the city and state’s practicing orthopaedists. But the rising pressure on private practice physicians, from the health care system and elsewhere, has put added stress on volunteers’ time. The endowed fund can relieve some of the stress by reinstituting faculty stipends eliminated years ago.

“Dr. (Mark) Melhorn has heard me promoting this message for several years that we have to really solidify a foundation for the faculty. Our program is stable, but there’s just so many potential gaps in the future,” Dart says. “I was caught off guard a little bit when he and his wife presented this to us. … I don’t really have the words to thank them.”

Pate plans to use the funds to continue work on behalf of at-risk children. Like many fields in pediatrics — consistently among the lowest-paid specialties according to a 2024 report by Doximity — child abuse and neglect is a specialty where doctors are in short supply and which has difficulty paying its own way. Often, medical schools or other institutions cover the gap in support.

Over a decade ago, Kathy began a phased retirement, and leadership of the Division of Child Abuse & Neglect transitioned to Kerri Weeks, M.D., associate pediatric program director. Pate hopes to recruit a partner for Weeks. “I would love to use this gift to honor what Kathy has built and support the work of Kerri and the rest of that team,” he says.

An endowed fund can take multiple forms, including supporting chairs or programs, like the one retired Mike Brown, M.D., and his wife, Janet, recently created for the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Donations can come in multiple ways, from one-time gifts to multi-year contributions with tax advantages, such as IRA Qualified Charitable Distributions. They can create new endowments or add to existing ones, with most endowed funds starting at the $25,000 and $50,000 levels.

“There are a lot of things we can do to match donors’ passions,” says Brad Rukes, KU Endowment senior development director for Wichita who worked closely with the Melhorns. “Kathy and Mark are generous people, fantastic educators and faithful Wichita Jayhawks. It was a pleasure working with them collaboratively to find the best way for them to support their passions on the Wichita campus.”

Kathy sums up the couples’ giving philosophy, “Do whatever you can within your abilities, financially or in other meaningful ways, to ensure the future of medical education and training. There were supporters, some visible and some unseen, who undergirded your success. This is your way of continuing that course for the future.”

Supporting the mission

If you would like to learn more about how you can endow a fund to support your passion at KU School of Medicine-Wichita, contact Brad Rukes, KU senior development director-Wichita, at 316-293-2641 or BRukes@kuendowment.org.