IN MEMORIAM
Vernon Drummond, DO
Dr Drummond, 71, died
Sept 5, 2007, at Parkland Health & Hospital
System in Dallas.
Dr Drummond earned
a bachelor of science
degree in 1959 from
Truman State University in Kirksville, Mo, and a doctor of osteopathic medicine degree four years later from
the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine-A.T. Still University. He interned at the
former Hospitals of the Kansas City (Mo)
College of Osteopathy and Surgery.
Dr Drummond practiced family medicine in Mesquite, Texas, for 41 years. He
retired in 2005.
An AOA life member, Dr Drummond
belonged to the American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians and the Texas
Osteopathic Medical Association.
Dr Drummond served on the Mesquite
City Council.
Dr Drummond is survived by two sons,
two daughters, two brothers, five sisters
and five grandchildren.
Karl H. McLead, DO
Dr McLead, 93, died Sept 21, 2007, at Sun
Coast Hospital in Largo, Fla.
Born in Prospect, Ohio, Dr McLead
earned his doctor of osteopathic medicine
degree in 1950 from the Midwestern University/Chicago College of Osteopathic
Medicine.
After practicing family medicine in Milwaukee from 1950 to 1956, Dr McLead
moved to Largo, where he practiced until
retiring in 1996 at age 82.
One of the first physicians at Sun Coast
Hospital, Dr McLead served as its chief of
staff from 1968 to 1972. He also helped
found the former University General Hospital in Seminole, Fla.
An AOA life member, Dr McLead
belonged to the Florida Osteopathic Medical Association and the Pinellas County
(Fla) Osteopathic Medical Society.
Dr McLead is survived by his wife, Joan,
two sons, three daughters and six grandchildren.
Albert Morgenthaler, DO
Dr Morgenthaler, 91, died June 6, 2007.
Dr Morgenthaler earned a bachelor of
44 In memoriam
The following deaths were reported to the AOA between May 28 and June 30. Unless otherwise indicated, obituaries will appear in upcoming issues for those DOs who were AOA members
and whose families notified the AOA within six months of the physicians’ deaths.
Abston, Jimmie; KCUMB-COM 1966; Newcastle, Okla; June 2
Berkowitz, Irving M.; PCOM 1964; Landenberg, Pa; Nov 12, 2007
Cornstuble, Norman E.; KCOM-ATSU 1940; Crawfordsville, Ind; Jan 27
Dunford, Homer W.; KCUMB-COM 1957; Carterville, Ga; April 1
Ford, Marvin L.; DMU-COM 1942; Clearmont, Mo June 9
Foster, Howard R.; PCOM 1957; Lafayette Hill, Pa; May 2
Gilfillan, Bruce C.; PCOM 1970; Fort Worth, Texas; June 8
Hawes, Charles M.; KCOM-ATSU 1944; Athens, Ga; June 18
Hock, Leonard R.; KCUMB-COM 1959; Sherman, Texas; Feb 14
Jermyn, John W.; UNTHSC/TCOM 1980; St Louis; May 15
Nicholas, Marvin J.; PCOM 1968; Fort Myers, Fla; May 30
Peterson, Walter D.; DMU-COM 1947; Lincoln Park, Mich; March 17
Polance, Harold N.; DMU-COM 1954; Nokomis, Fla; April 25
Sator, William A.; OSU-COM 1986; Owasso, Okla; April 6
Scadron, Hubert M.; KCOM-ATSU 1951; Dallas; May 20
Smeyne, A. Leon; PCOM 1942; Bronx, NY; April 26, 2007
Urbanc, Bruce C.; KCOM-ATSU 1981; Sidney, Ohio; May 25
Those wishing to honor a colleague, patient or family member with a memorial contribution to
the American Osteopathic Foundation may do so by writing to the foundation at 142 E Ontario
St, Chicago, IL 60611-2864; by calling (800) 621-1773, ext 8234, or (312) 202-8234; or by sending
e-mail to [email protected].
Death notices should be mailed to the American Osteopathic Association, Department of
Membership, 142 E Ontario St, Chicago, IL 60611-2864. Death notices can also be e-mailed to
[email protected] or faxed to (312) 202-8206.
science degree in 1937 from the Philadelphia
College of Pharmacy at the University of
the Sciences in Philadelphia. After serving in
the US Army, Dr Morgenthaler enrolled at
the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic
Medicine. He graduated in 1958 and
interned at the former Zieger Osteopathic
Hospital in Detroit.
Dr Morgenthaler practiced family medicine in Warren, Mich, from 1959 to 1969.
He was an AOA life member.
Dr Morgenthaler’s wife, Mary, died 11
weeks before he died.
Timothy D. Webber, DO, MPH
Dr Webber, 64, of Saginaw, Mich, died at
home on Oct 10, 2007.
Son of the late Thomas D. Webber, DO,
Dr Webber was born in Gladwin, Mich.
He earned a doctor of osteopathic medicine degree in 1970 from the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine-A.T. Still University and interned at the former Saginaw
Osteopathic Hospital.
AOA board certified in family medicine
and in preventive medicine and occupational
and environmental medicine, Dr Webber
had practiced in Saginaw since 1971. He
was still in practice at the time of his death.
Dr Webber was affiliated with Covenant
Medical Center Inc in Saginaw and St Mary’s
of Michigan-Medical Center in Saginaw.
Dr Webber served as the medical director for the city of Saginaw from 1977 to
2006.
An AOA member, Dr Webber was the
1993-94 president of the American Osteopathic College of Occupational and Preventive Medicine. In 2000, he was named
the Michigan Osteopathic Family Physician
of the Year by the Michigan Association of
Osteopathic Family Physicians. He belonged
to the American College of Osteopathic
Family Physicians, the American Academy
of Osteopathy and the Saginaw County
(Mich) Osteopathic Society.
Dr Webber is survived by his wife,
Jeanette; one son; one daughter, Constance
L. Scott, DO, of Saginaw; four brothers;
two sisters; and four grandchildren.
THE DO July 2008
Friends of the profession
Norma Lee Anderson
The wife of 1994-95 AOA President William G. Anderson I, DO,
Ander son died Dec 27, 2007.
Anderson, who lived in Southfield, Mich, was 80.
A childhood friend of the Rev
Martin Luther King Jr, PhD,
Norma Anderson was an active
participant in the civil rights movement, serving along with her husband as one of the leaders of the
Albany (Ga) Movement.
Mrs and Dr Anderson recounted their struggles for civil justice in the 2004 book Autobiographies of a Black Couple of the Greatest
Generation. In her section of the book, which she
titled “The Moving Walkway,” Anderson wrote
about such experiences as participating in nonviolent demonstrations, spending time in jail
after being arrested while demonstrating, hosting leaders of the civil rights movement in her
home, watching the Ku Klux Klan burn a cross
across the street from her home, boycotting
Albany’s municipal bus service, and attempting
to integrate Albany’s public schools.
“Though many would try to classify our work
[in Albany] as a failure, it was the first spontaneous awakening among an entire community
to the injustices of segregation,” Anderson wrote
at the end of “The Moving Walkway.” “It was
a testing ground for the principles of nonviolence
and social change. It brought with it a recognition of the power of committed individuals
to make the world better for themselves, for
others, and for the future.”
Anderson’s contributions to the civil rights
movement are recognized in such sources as the
Civil Rights Digital Library. The University of
Georgia’s “Freedom on Film: Civil Rights in Georgia” collection includes a video clip from Dec
14, 1961, in which Anderson leads nine other
black people into the whites-only lunchroom of
Albany’s Trailways bus terminal.
A former elementary school teacher, Anderson co-founded the Westside Citizens for the
Developmentally Disabled after moving to
Detroit.
Anderson served the osteopathic medical
profession as a member of the Advocates to the
AOA for some 30 years. She also belonged to
the auxiliary to the former Art Centre Hospital
in Detroit.
“Life with Andy [her nickname for Dr Ander-
THE DO July 2008
son] has been anything but dull,” Anderson
noted in the AOA Board of Trustees’ spouses
directory. “We grew up and learned the art of
survival as we struggled together to reach our
shared goals.”
Besides Dr Anderson, her survivors include
two sons, William G. Anderson II, DO, of Southfield and Frank L. Anderson, DO, of North Las
Vegas, Nev, and three daughters, including
Darnita D. Hill, DO, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla, whose
husband is Gary R. Hill, DO. She is also survived
by seven granddaughters, including Camille
Henson, DO, of Southfield; three grandsons,
including Barrett G. Anderson, OMS IV, of the
Michigan State University College of Osteopathic
Medicine in East Lan sing; and two greatgrandchildren.
Contributions may be made in Anderson’s
memory to the American Osteopathic Foundation’s William G. Anderson, DO, Minority Scholarship program or to the Hartford Memorial
Baptist Church in Detroit.
Robert A. Klobnak
Klobnak, who worked for four osteopathic medical organizations over the course of approximately 50 years, died July 11, 2007. He was 79.
A Marine veteran of World War II and the
Korean War, Klobnak was working as a newspaper sports writer for the former Chicago
Herald-American when he joined the AOA’s
staff in 1953 as a medical writer. Three years
later, he was promoted to assistant director of
public relations, and the following year, he
became the AOA’s director of public relations,
a position he held for 23 years.
Throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, Klobnak spent much of his time working to get the
legislatures in 16 states to change their practice
rights acts to give osteopathic physicians unlimited scope of practice. That effort reached
its successful conclusion in 1973, when Mississippi became the last state to grant DOs full
practice rights.
On the AOA’s behalf, Klobnak used his previous connections as a Chicago newspaper
reporter to get access to the press gallery at the
annual meetings of the American Medical Association’s House of Delegates. As a consequence,
in the early 1960s, Klobnak was among the first
to report to the AOA that the California Osteopathic Association and the California Medical
Association were working together to merge
the DO and MD professions in California.
Klobnak orchestrated the AOA’s campaign
to persuade the US Postal Service to issue a stamp
to commemorate the AOA’s 75th anniversary.
During his 23 years as the AOA’s director of public relations, Robert A. Klobnak reported on numerous occasions to
the AOA House of Delegates and the
AOA Board of Trustees. (Photo from the
AOA photo archive)
Timed in conjunction with the AOA’s 1972 convention in Miami, some 135 million copies of
the 8-cent stamp went on sale on Oct 10 of that
year. The stamp was part of the Postal Service’s
“Partners in Health” series.
“While the stamp design itself was the Postal
Service’s,” Klobnak wrote in The DO’s January
1973 issue, “the AOA’s Public Relations Department was able to provide information about
the profession to help the artist in his task. We
were also instrumental in having the words
‘osteopathic medicine’ rather than the term
‘osteopathy‘ used in the design.”
Klobnak also supervised the creation of three
films about osteopathic medicine: An American
Doctor and The Other DOctor for the AOA
and Medical Mission to Mayaland for DOCARE
International.
Toward the end of his time at the AOA, Klobnak proposed that the profession establish
National Osteopathic Medicine Week so that
organizations throughout the profession could
simultaneously conduct media relations
In memoriam 45
campaigns during the same week each year.
In 1961, Klobnak helped found DOCARE
International, a philanthropic affiliate of the
AOA that conducts missions to medically underserved areas of Latin America. He served as
DOCARE’s executive secretary for its first 20 years
and served on its board for nearly all of its existence. He returned to DOCARE in 1997 to serve
a nearly 10-year stint as its executive director.
He participated in DOCARE missions himself
until 2003.
While still at the AOA, Klobnak helped found
the Association of Military Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons (AMOPS) in the late 1970s.
In 1980, Klobnak left the AOA to become
the chairman of medical communications at a
new osteopathic medical college, what is now
the Nova Southeastern University College of
Osteopathic Medicine (NSU-COM) in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. That same year, he became AMOPS’s
executive director. He retired from NSU-COM
in 1991 and from AMOPS eight years later.
In 1998, the AOA bestowed on Klobnak its
highest award, the Distinguished Service Certificate. In accepting his certificate, Klobnak
observed, “I’ve been around for a long time,
and I’ve seen the growth of the profession at
all levels. ... What keeps people like myself in
this profession ... is the people you work with.”
Klobnak is survived by his wife, Eileen, three
daughters, four grandsons and three granddaughters.
Contributions may be made in Klobnak’s
memory to DOCARE.
Philip B. Pressler
Pressler of Harrisburg, Pa, died
March 4. The husband of AOA Trustee Suzanne K. Kelley, DO, Press ler
was 61.
A Baltimore
native who was
raised mostly in
West Springfield,
Mass, Pressler was a batboy for what was then
the New York Giants’ minor league baseball
team in Springfield, Mass. He earned a bachelor of arts degree in English from Villanova
(Pa) University and a master of arts degree in
theology from the Washington (DC) Theological Union.
Pressler’s business career included founding
and serving as the president and chief executive
officer of ProFile Systems, a data-storage and
46 In memoriam
-management company in Conshohocken, Pa.
In addition, he was an adjunct professor and
an academic adviser in the Business Department
at Manor College in Jenkintown, Pa.
Before retiring in 2006, Pressler served as a
patient advocate at PennState Milton S. Hershey Medical Center in Hershey, Pa.
In addition to Dr Kelley, Pressler’s survivors
include his mother, one son, two daughters, two
brothers and four grandchildren.
Contributions may be made in Pressler’s
memory to the Augustinian Fund in Villanova.
Michael John Sevastos
Sevastos, who served as a page in the AOA House
of Delegates for a number of years in the 1990s,
died March 4. He was 23.
Sevastos was a grandson of the 1996-97 AOA
President John P. Sevastos, DO, and the son of
Athena Sevastos, who supervised the House
pages in the 1990s.
Josephine L. Seyl
Seyl, who worked at the AOA for 42 years during the tenures of four AOA executive directors,
died April 11. She was 89.
A Chicago native and a longtime resident
of Evanston, Ill, Seyl joined the AOA staff in
1943. Five years later, she was among the first
AOA employees to work in the Andrew Taylor
Still Memorial Building at 212 E Ohio St in Chicago, which was the first headquarters the AOA
owned rather than rented. She retired in 1985,
two years before the AOA moved a short distance away to its current headquarters at 142 E
Ontario St.
At the AOA’s 1959 convention in Chicago, Josephine L. Seyl (left) assists C.D.
Ogilvie, DO, of Fort Worth, Texas, as he
presides over the third annual meeting
of the American Osteopathic Historical
Society. Seyl was the society’s secretary,
and Dr Ogilvie was its president.
At that time, the society had 150
names on its mailing list and annual
dues of $3. (Photo from the AOA photo archive)
Seyl spent much of her early years at the
AOA as the supervisor of information and statistics, a position that was originally in the AOA
Editorial Department and later moved to the
AOA Executive Department.
During her last 23 years at the AOA, Seyl
was the director of the Department of Membership. In that capacity, she also served as the
registrar for the AOA’s annual conventions.
Toward the end of her career at the AOA, Seyl
supervised her department’s role in migrating the
AOA’s membership records from paper files to
the AOA’s first computerized database.
While at the AOA, Seyl also served as the
secretary to the former American Osteopathic
Historical Society and the former Osteopathic
Libraries Association.
She is survived by four nieces, two nephews,
three great-nieces, one great-nephew, two greatgreat-nieces and two great-great nephews.
Contributions may be made in Seyl’s memory to the ENH Hospice in Skokie, Ill.
THE DO July 2008