Greater Good

Medicine requires tremendous dedication from its practitioners, but few physicians could match the level of commitment maintained by Samuel D. Weakley Jr., M.D., and his late wife, Lolita S. Weakley, M.D.

For more than 50 years, colleagues say, the Weakleys personified the absolute best in medicine through their tireless devotion to superb patient care, professional development and educational excellence at their alma mater, the University of Louisville School of Medicine.

On Nov. 15, the Weakleys were recognized for that commitment when UofL presented them with the Sam and Lolita Weakley Lifetime Achievement Award, the first such honor to be given by the school.

"I can't think of anyone more deserving of a lifetime achievement award than Sam and Lita Weakley," says Larry Cook, M.D., UofL's executive vice president of health affairs and a friend of the Weakleys for decades. "They were two of the finest physicians I've ever known, with a true commitment to providing patients with the best in leading-edge care.

"Moreover, they were keenly interested in serving the medical community through their work as leaders in professional organizations like the Kentucky Medical Association and in helping boost the stature of the University of Louisville School of Medicine through their ceaseless efforts as philanthropists.

"Even after they retired from the active practice of medicine, Sam and Lita continued to work on behalf of the School of Medicine as fundraisers and benefactors, providing the school with more than $2.25 million in personal gifts that were used to establish two endowed chairs and support other educational efforts.

"They are true leaders in the medical community."

Love at First Sight

Sam Weakley grew up in rural Shelby County, Ky., and wasted no time making his way in the world. He served as a navigator in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II, directing B-24 Liberators during bombing missions over Europe. When his tour of duty ended, Sam returned home with the determination to "make something out of himself," says Hiram Polk, M.D., former chair of the Department of Surgery at UofL and a personal friend of the Weakleys since the early 1970s.

Sam thus enrolled in the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1947, when he met fellow student Lolita Snodgrass while standing in line to register for classes.

"It may not have been love at first sight, but it was close," Polk says.

The two were married the following year, and Sam graduated with an M.D. in 1950, thanks to an accelerated medical school program necessitated by the war. In the meantime, Lita left school to start a family -- she and Sam eventually had four children, Samuel D. Weakley III; Barbara Weakley-Jones, M.D.; Stephen T. Weakley; and M. Melinda Weakley, M.D.

Lita planned to finish her medical degree after giving birth to Barbara in 1950, but she contracted polio and was temporarily sidelined by treatments in an iron lung at Louisville General Hospital.

Showing the kind of determination for which she would later become legendary, Lita made a full recovery and completed her M.D. at UofL in 1953.

Sam went on to complete his residency at UofL and founded a private surgical practice that grew into the Louisville-based Surgical Care Associates.

In his early years of practice, the board-certified surgeon worked predominantly at Kentucky Baptist Hospital, but he had patients at other hospitals, too, says Kelly McMasters, M.D., current chair of the Department of Surgery at UofL.

"Sam had patients in hospitals all over town, and it would take him hours to make rounds in all those places," he recalls.

"If he operated on somebody, he took care of that patient every single day. He never took a day off. His dedication to patient care was phenomenal."

Sam, who later served as a clinical professor of surgery at UofL, also was active in professional organizations and held numerous leadership roles, including president of the Jefferson County Medical Society, vice president of the Kentucky Medical Association, co-chair of UofL's James Graham Brown Cancer Center and trustee of the University of Louisville.

Lita completed a residency in anesthesiology at UofL and Louisville General Hospital in 1956, after which she taught residents and served as acting chief of the hospital's anesthesia service -- a groundbreaking role for a woman at that time.

In fact, the anesthesiologist spent most of her career serving as a role model for women physicians, says Laura Schweitzer, Ph.D., former interim dean of the School of Medicine at UofL.

"Fewer than 10 percent of medical school students were women in the 1950s," says Schweitzer, who is now chief academic officer at Bassett Healthcare in Cooperstown, N.Y.

"I think the word 'pioneer' can absolutely be used with her.

"I know she is revered by women faculty at UofL because she had a demanding career and still nurtured a family at a time when that was very unusual. She was an amazing person who blazed a trail for others to follow."

Lita's clinical skills were just as impressive.

"She was always the go-to person for the most difficult problems," McMasters recalls. "You could count on her to do whatever was necessary to provide state-of-the-art patient care."

After leaving Louisville General Hospital in 1958, Lita worked in private practice at Norton Memorial Infirmary and was active in numerous professional organizations, serving as president of the Louisville Society of Anesthesia and as member of the University of Louisville Board of Overseers. In 1988, she became an assistant clinical professor of anesthesia at UofL.

Both she and Sam were active politically, too, promoting a legislative agenda to advance medical care in Kentucky and across the United States.

"They made more than 50 trips to Washington as part of legislative delegations to present medical issues to people representing Kentucky," Polk says, adding: "Sam's appearance meant that the issue at hand was truly a legitimate one."

Discipline and Leadership

As with other aspects of their careers, Sam and Lita exemplified a professional discipline that was unsurpassed, according to McMasters. This revealed itself when the two attended medical meetings, which are frequently held in sunny resort communities.

"Other surgeons would select which talks they wanted to hear, and spend the rest of time enjoying resort activities," McMasters says.

"But Lita and Sam would sit there through every single talk for the entire meeting, from early morning to 6 o'clock at night. That's the kind of incredible discipline and dedication they both had in every aspect of their lives."

Polk agrees.

"Sam and Lita's point of view was that you couldn't keep up with the rapid advances in medicine without going to these meetings and paying full attention. They didn't just pop in for one lecture and then play a round of golf. They were front-row for everything."

The two were equally dedicated as alumni who tirelessly supported the school's needs, both educational and financial.

"The thing that's so unusual about the Weakleys is that they always seemed to be there, to be supportive of anything that was in the best interests of the medical school or the departments of anesthesiology and surgery," Polk says.

"I know they hosted countless dinners in the interest of recruiting faculty and administrative leaders to UofL. No matter how many times you asked, they always seemed to truly enjoy going above and beyond the call. It's the kind of people they are."

The Weakleys have been active in sponsoring mentorship programs for medical students and undergraduates at UofL, too, McMasters says.

But perhaps the Weakleys' biggest impact has been in the area of philanthropy.

Both believed it was their duty to give back to the school, which they did in part by funding two endowed chairs in the school of medicine -- the Samuel D. and Lolita S. Weakley Chair in Surgical Oncology, currently held by McMasters; and the Lolita S. and Samuel D. Weakley Endowed Research Chair in Anesthesiology, held until recently by Daniel I. Sessler, M.D.

"Both of those endowments were instrumental to the school in that they allowed UofL to recruit stars like Kelly McMasters and Dan Sessler," Schweitzer says.

Sessler came to UofL in 2000, when he founded the Louisville-based Outcomes Research Institute, a nonprofit group of 20 investigators working on a broad array of projects, including simple interventions that may markedly improve how patients fare.

The group is part of the larger Outcomes Research Consortium, an international group of more than 100 clinical investigators.

"The creation of this endowed chair led to the establishment of the Outcomes Research Institute at UofL, and that, in turn, has led to a considerable amount of high-level, peer-reviewed research," Sessler notes. "The institute has published more than 100 full papers to date."

The Weakleys' endowed chair in surgical oncology has been equally beneficial to the University, McMasters says.

"The funding provided for this chair has allowed us to focus on building an outstanding research program for the department," he says. "Grant funding for clinical research in surgical oncology went from zero to a couple of million dollars in just a few short years, which meant we could participate in more clinical trials.

"We've now completed the largest melanoma study in the world and three of the largest surgical studies of breast cancer in the world.

"A couple of hundred abstracts and papers resulted from that -- presentations at national and international meetings everywhere -- which really helped build the reputation of the Department of Surgery, the James Graham Brown Cancer Center and the University of Louisville.

"Now we're running large, multicenter clinical trials here. I'd say their gift to fund this chair impacted nearly every aspect of the Health Sciences Center at UofL."

The Weakleys have supported other fund-raising efforts, too, helping collect more than $2.25 million while serving on the School of Medicine's Capital Campaign Committee.

In 2001, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education recognized the Weakleys for their philanthropic support by awarding them the Bill Franklin Volunteer of the Year Award.

"Once they made their gifts to UofL to endow the chairs, they were evangelical in talking to others about why they should make their own gifts -- how helpful and rewarding it was to do so," Polk says.

"I suspect that Sam and, especially, Lita had their hand in close to a dozen endowments. They were the critical individuals who helped secure hundreds of thousands of dollars in gifts for UofL, if not more."

Lita, who passed away on April 15, 2007, after a short illness, "could be very persuasive about philanthropy," Polk adds. "In many ways, she was a hard woman to say no to.

"Lita and Sam both had a vision of a greater good that they really wanted to share with others. Lita was often the spokesperson for this effort -- she was especially articulate and never met a stranger -- but they both felt this was the right thing to do."

Polk, for one, thinks it will be difficult to find another physician who can live up the standards the Weakleys have set for lifetime achievement.

"They both epitomize the very, very best of medicine," he says.

McMasters agrees.

"They are the model citizens for supporting the university and the community.

"They've given of their money and their time. They've given of their knowledge and their skill, their philosophy, their attitude and their motivation. And they continued to work tirelessly to benefit others, long after they retired.

"They've never shied away from any challenge to help the university, our community or the practice of medicine. In short, they've always been model, participatory citizens in every aspect of life."