University Libraries Promotion and Tenure Recognition

The Doctors Mayo is a biography about Dr. William Mayo and his sons, Will and Charles, founders of the world famous Mayo Clinic. Author Helen Clapesattle traces the personal and professional lives of these men who settled in rural Rochester, Minnesota and, with the assistance of a determined group of Franciscan nuns, developed the first multi-specialty group medical practice. The institution upon which this book is based has special meaning to me because the Mayo Clinic is where I trained as a post-doctoral research fellow. The Mayo brothers accomplished worldwide recognition in medicine because they pooled their knowledge, worked together, and fostered the development of others so that this knowledge and experience could be perpetuated. This reflects the philosophy that their father underscored throughout his career by saying that "no one is big enough to be independent of others." As a faculty member and director of my own laboratory, I try to encourage this "group practice" approach among my colleagues and students.