A self-titled “average” student as an undergraduate, Jim LaRose wasn’t having much luck getting into medical school until he applied at the College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery (COMS), now DMU. Four years later, he graduated top of his class and went on to serve patients as a general practitioner in the Houston area ever since.
LaRose never forgot the opportunity and career the college gave him. That’s why, during their 40-year reunion on campus in 2009, he and a group of his classmates decided to donate money to create a scholarship for aspiring DMU osteopathic medical students.
“We want to help someone as weird as we all were,” he laughs.
Weird, perhaps, but close-knit: Class President Max “Tedd” McKinney, D.O.’69, FACFP, a family practitioner in Farmington Hills, MI, describes the group as “a great big team.” His wife, Marilyn, was president of the COMS Students’ Wives Club.
“Everybody knew everybody,” he says. A longtime member of the college’s national alumni association and past chair and current member of the DMU Board of Trustees, McKinney was proud as his classmates toured campus during their 2009 reunion. Classmate Brian Beck, D.O.’69, was “amazed” by what he saw.
“I was very impressed at how innovative and progressive the institution was,” he says.
Like McKinney and LaRose, he encourages all their classmates to support the Class of 1969 Scholarship Fund.
“The college gave us all the ability to practice medicine, do what we love to do and make a living,” says Beck, a family physician in Davison, MI. “I feel responsible for the institution that gave me that opportunity. We need to pay that back.”
You, too, can come together with classmates, family members and friends to honor memories and invest in DMU students.
To explore the possibilities, contact us at 515-271-1387 or via www.dmu.edu/donations.