Recording - 08-17-2023 06:47:24

00:02 This is Mark Swiontkowski and I'm speaking to you from Albuquerque where we're having the annual meeting of the 20th Century Orthopedic Association. And I'm here speaking with my friend and colleague Dr. Ramon Jimenez, who has been a long term member of this association and very important volunteer for many, many activities for the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons and also one of the found of the aalos, American association of Latino Orthopedic Surgeons. Latino and Latina, correct?

00:41 Sure, Latinx or so, whatever.

00:44 Yeah, good. And that's an organization that's got a great start and is on a roll. Thanks to Dr. Jimenez and his young colleagues. So what we're here today to talk about a member of the twentieth Century Orthopedic association who has passed away, a great contributor to the field, a great human and in a major leadership role at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. And Ramon, why don't you just tell me when you first met Bill?

01:23 I first met Bill actually as we got involved in about 1992, correction in 1972 with the beginnings of COA California Orthopedic Association. Me, myself, Blair Filler and Sandy Ansell, all were founders of this organization which was really put together, led by Bill who was living in Sacramento and had part of an eight man group. And he became very the advocacy issue. And the only issue at that time for the California Orthopedic association was the, was podiatry and the fact that they were looking to extend their reach if you would, their surgical scope above the foot, above the ankle, maybe going up to the calf, knee, etc. Their analogy was there and their reason for it was that well, if the gastroc muscles originate above them, then that's all part of our Bailey wave. So Bill was very adamant about that. He was, he became a strong advocate. He kind of rounded us up 5 or 6. The California Orthopedic Situation association grew to the point where the initial three, four meetings were 10, 15, 20 people. Then we got to the next few years 100. So now they number about 2,000 in the COA. And we successfully monitored limited the podiatry issues. I was always struck with Bill, even though he was a very strong advocate, anti podiatry if you would. He was never denigrating abusive.

03:49 He never made it personal.

03:51 Never made it personal. And I grew up under orthopedically under tutelage of Lloyd Taylor, a great orthopedic surgeon in San Francisco, was head of our program. He said you can do anything but do not make medicine personal. And I've always lived that way. And so for. Really resonated with me that Bill was that way. So we became. Bill and I became personal friends, even though I was in San Jose, he was in Sacramento. And he was a tremendous 49er fan. And during that time I was very good friends with the attorney who actually sold the 49ers to the DE Bartolo Group out of Ohio. And so I was very closely involved with them going the away trips and stuff. And so I. One of Bill's highlights was when I invited him up into the owner's box.

05:02 Oh my.

05:03 With the 49ers and I gave him a coach's shirt and stuff. When I'd stay at their home, Pat and Bill Tipton's, I would be in the 49er room because his son was a great 49er fan also. But the Bill was gregarious. He would fill a room, in a sense, just with his personality and a high tempered voice, a great laugh, always looking for the best in another person. And he would address people with the attitude of orthopedic surgeons, that they're fellow humans, it doesn't matter from what race, gender, et cetera, they came from. So Bill became head of his own group. And during that time, California was undergoing decapitation, was coming in.

06:13 And we're now in the 80s, 80s, 90s, 85. Okay, okay.

06:19 Something like that, yeah. And I was chief of staff in my own hospital and we were very. Still very involved with legislators in Sacramento. And you could see that Bill was obviously the leader and he. So we started getting more involved with the academy. He was always involved. I think he started more in earnest than I did, maybe five, six years ahead of me. But as he became head of his own group and as California's economic, socioeconomic woes, as far as medical doctors, providers are concerned, started to plummet, he decided that there was an opportunity to put his hat in the ring for chief executive officer of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. And being a private practice community orthopedist, he had an uphill climb there because.

07:26 It was his competitors from the academic background.

07:32 So. But Bill was very astute politician and ended up with that post. So he was an md, an orthopedic surgeon and CEO. And he was pro orthopedics, pro community, pro academics, and tried to meld those two isolated towers, if you would. And so. And he was. His office was an open door at the academy. He brought in Larry Rosenthal, who was the chief financial officer. They were there for about 1012 years together, and the Academy was in great position and stood by their goals of they were there to serve their members, all their members. And sometimes the Academy slips and slides since then, but so that's not the issue now. Bill got me more involved because he was the kind of guy, if he set you down across the table, he said, well, Ramon let me talk to you. So he sent me across the table, this was probably around 1990. And he said, I need you to become a captain for oref, Captain of a local region. He knew I contributed minimal, but I contributed and I believed in Oref, and so I became a captain. When he sat across the table from you with those blue eyes, you knew that I'm not going to turn him down for anything. And so I did. And the rest is history there, as far as I'm concerned, because he helped pave the way. So, you know, and I paved my own way in order to become President Oref and brought him through some good years. But Bill was always there. He was always there to mentor. And I looked at him as a mentor, too. I said, you know, you and I are the same age, but you got a lot of wisdom to impart. I was brought up by the Jesuits, and at my prep school, we took two years of Homeric Greek. We had to translate this stuff. One of the things they really drove home, Father Michael Buckley drove home, was two words, hubris, which is false. Pride.

10:13 Yes.

10:13 And we want you to live by arete a r e t e, which is excellence, virtue, honor. And if you just live by those the rest of your life, you would be fine. And Bill happened to be Jesuit trained, too. And in fact, he was in the seminary for one or two years. I always kidded him that maybe he could pregnant. Venial sense. So I would ask him on the mentorship. I remember asking him that. Climb the road and became chair of public education. But then the opportunity for diversity came along, second to another tall white guy, and that was Doug Jackson, sports medicine figure and president of the Academy, who tapped me on the shoulder and said, I want you to be involved with the Latino extension. So Bill, I said to him, you know, can I. Do you think it'd be okay to leave chair of publication? I just became chair last year. He says, go for it. So I did. And so that really, really helped. And Bill was my sponsor for the 20th Century organization. He was one of three or four, I think it took about 10 or 15 to get me in, but I would. I really was honored to become part of 20th century and it's been about 20 years since that happened. But I was always indebted to Bill and I. Unfortunately, when he died of the biliary duct cancer, I was really struck by that. And we came out with one of the three or four of us, including Bob D'Ambrosio, Leary, Rosenthal, that eulogized him. But okay, if it's eulogy, then it's more appropriate. And so. But he would always ask me to tell the joke. So I told that joke at the eulogy. And it's about Juan, his older brother Manual. And Juan was about 7 years old or 8 years old, something like that. And in school, the teacher asked if they could use the word choo choo in the sentence. And so little Sally raised her hand, said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. She says, the choo choo train comes by my house every day. Oh, that's great, Sally. That's great. Says anybody else. She said, well, Mark on the corner raised his hand. He said, yes, my family rode in the choo choo train all the way from New York to the West Coast. It was wonderful. Oh, that's good use of that. And little Juan is in the back, was raising his hand. And the teacher was always afraid to call him because he had some sort of a smart answer. But she called him, says, okay, Juan, what is. He says, I got an older brother named Manuel and he loves his car. He says, and he always says, you touch my Chevy, I'm going to shoot you. Bill would have his barrel laugh. And it was great. I love Bill Tipton.

13:55 Yeah, that's obvious from hearing your recollections and seeing it in your face. And he's been a huge contributor to our field, a man of honor and principle and loved people and always kind, and he is sorely missed. And Ramon, thank you for sharing these recollections. And we'll make sure that others can hear hear them in the future in perpetuity.

14:19 This is very good.

14:20 Thanks.