Posted August 13, 2001

IOWA CITY -- John J. Callaghan, M.D., UI professor of orthopaedic surgery, has been appointed the Dr. Lawrence and Marilyn Dorr Endowed Chair for Hip Reconstruction and Research. This endowed chair was established with a gift made through the UI Foundation by Dr. Lawrence Dorr and Marilyn Dorr of La Canada - Flintridge, Calif.

An endowed chair is the highest honor that the university bestows on an outstanding faculty member. Endowment income is used as deemed appropriate by the dean of the college and the provost to supplement the salary of the faculty member and/or to support the academic pursuits and endeavors of the chair holder.

"We are very pleased that Dr. John Callaghan will be the first Lawrence and Marilyn Dorr Chair of Hip Reconstruction and Research," said Joseph A. Buckwalter, M.D., UI professor and head of orthopaedic surgery.

"Dr. Callaghan has earned an enviable international reputation for his landmark investigations into the long-term function of total hip replacements and his innovative improvements in hip replacement surgery. He is one of the world's best-recognized hip surgeons and investigators. The support from the Lawrence Dorr Chair will ensure that Dr. Callaghan's outstanding research program will become even stronger."

Callaghan earned his medical degree from Loyola Medical School and received his bachelor's degree from Notre Dame University, majoring in science and engineering. After completing his residency in orthopaedics at the UI, Callaghan moved to New York for a year to undertake two fellowships, one in orthopaedic surgery at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and one in hip surgery at the Hospital for Special Surgery.

Callaghan has served in the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences since 1984 and also was a faculty member at Duke University before returning to the UI as an associate professor of orthopaedic surgery in 1990. He was promoted to professor in 1993.

Lawrence Dorr, a native Iowan, received his medical degree from the UI in 1967. He is now senior surgeon at the Bone and Joint Institute in Los Angeles. Marilyn Dorr, who is a successful businesswoman in Pasadena, also attended the UI.

"The University of Iowa Department of Orthopaedic Surgery has a long tradition of major contributions to the treatment of patients with crippling diseases of the hip," Buckwalter said. "The faculty members of the department have not only developed innovative surgical approaches to the treatment of hip disease, the Orthopaedics Biomechanics Laboratory also has made major contributions to the understanding of the function of the hip and ways of improving hip function for people with disabling hip arthritis."

With Callaghan's appointment, the UI Department of Orthopaedic Surgery now has four faculty members named to endowed chairs. Thomas Brown, Ph.D., is the Johnston Chair in Orthopaedic Biomechanics; Reginald Cooper, M.D., is the Carroll B. Larson Chair in Orthopaedics; and Stuart Weinstein, M.D., is the Ignacio V. Ponseti Chair in Orthopaedics.

Contact Information

Carl Bendorf
Interim Assistant Vice President, Health Sciences Center Development
The University of Iowa Foundation
(319) 335-3305 or (800) 648-6973

Jennifer Brown
Health Science Relations
(319) 335-9917

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