Class Notes

1964

Dr. Carlos Murdock, MD ’64, enjoyed more than 30 years of a general family practice in Pleasant Grove, Utah, and at American Fork Hospital. He loved the practice of medicine and the associations with patients and colleagues. In retirement, he and his wife of 67 years enjoy traveling with each other and family. They have five children, 17 grandchildren, and 31 great-grandchildren. His other interests have included hunting, horses, trail riding, and woodworking.

1968

Glenn D. Warden, MD, MBA ’68, spent his career as a general surgeon, specializing in trauma and burn research and treatment. After his residency and military service in the Surgical Research Burn Unit at Brooke Army Medical Center, he was appointed faculty in surgery at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, rising to full professor in 1985. He then went to the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine as director of the Burn Division and chief of staff and director of research at the Shriners Hospital for Children. He retired as chief of staff of the Shriners Burn Hospital and vice-chairman of the Department of Surgery in 2004. He still works as a professor of surgery in the trauma section at the Charleston campus of West Virginia University, where he travels from Salt Lake City to work two weeks of each month. He and Norma just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary and have four children and 10 grandchildren.

1970

Russell B. Shields, MD ’70, practiced internal medicine in Bountiful, Utah, for 45 years. He loved his work. He also was a team physician for the Utah Jazz for 36 years and was awarded the NBA Trainers Association’s Team Physician of the Year award in 2015. He has been married to Valva for 55 years and has three grown children. He gave up golf and replaced it with a Harley-Davidson. He likes most outdoor and wilderness activities. He is looking forward to reuniting with his classmates to celebrate their belated 50-year reunion.

Dolores Orfanakis, MD ’70, lives in Lake Oswego, Oregon, with her husband, Nick, who is also a 1970 graduate of the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine. While living in Portland, she participated in developing a full-service pediatric hospital and worked as a pediatrician with a special interest in developmental pediatrics. She has two children and three grandchildren. She enjoys hiking, biking, and yoga, and is a Master Gardener. She has served on the local hospital board, school board, and science museum board.

Steven R. Austin, MD, FACR ’70, worked as a radiologist in Idaho Falls, Idaho. Upon his retirement he and wife, Claire, moved to St. George, Utah, where he enjoys taking classes at Dixie State University and skiing, hiking, and cycling. He has four children and 12 grandchildren, many of whom are in the medical profession. During his career he served on the board of trustees at the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, as president of the medical staff, as president of the Idaho Chapter of the American College of Radiology, and on the Idaho Medical Association board. He enjoys creating sculptures, throwing pottery, and making simple furniture.

Charles Everts, MD ’70, spent most of his career in Wyoming, serving as a radiologist at five small hospitals there. He and his wife, Patty, have been married 55 years and enjoy traveling, having visited Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the Baltics and South Slavic States, and many other countries in Western Europe. He has two daughters and four grandchildren. In his retirement he enjoys golfing, fishing, and shooting. He has fond memories of Dr. Edward I. Hashimoto and grimaces remembering the bad jokes made in gross anatomy class.

Gordon R. Kimball, MD ’70, is an orthopedic physician who still works full-time in Sandy, Utah, having done more than 35,000 operations and 10,000 total joints. He comments on all the changes his class has seen since graduating in 1970: home computers, the internet, smartphones, telehealth, artificial joints, arthroscopy, CAT, MRI, 3D scans, EHR, digital rays, AI, and instant billing (but still delayed payments!). He loves being a physician and feels the healing art is a lovely, sacred, and beautiful act. He completed all of his training while serving in the US Army for nine years of active duty, ending as a lieutenant colonel. His first wife, Margaret, died of lupus. He has been married to Judy Dyches Beck for seven years, and together they have nine children, 33 grandchildren, and 12 great-grandchildren.

Cecil O. Samuelson, MD ’70, retired from his rheumatology practice in 1994 as his administrative responsibilities, which he says he lacked the ability and judgment to decline, took more of his time. Along with being a professor of internal medicine at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine, he served as dean of the medical school and Vice President of Health Sciences, and starting in 1990, as a Senior Vice President at Intermountain Healthcare. After he totally retired from active practice, he served as a General Authority of the Quorom of the Seventy in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as President of Brigham Young University, and as President of the Salt Lake Temple, finally stepping into real retirement in 2017. He is married to Sharon, and they have five children and 13 grandchildren. He feels his class was very lucky to be at the School of Medicine when they were, and in retrospect says there is very little he would change about those experiences.

Colin K. Kelly, MD ’70 served in the US Army Medical Corps after completing medical school and then was chief resident in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Oregon Health Science Center. He ran a private practice in pediatrics from 1975-2014 in Salt Lake City. Since 2017 he has done health-risk evaluations for disabled adults and Medicare patients. He’s been married to Mary McMillan for 52 years, and they have six children and 20 grandchildren. They enjoy traveling and have visited England, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, China, South Korea, and Brazil. His funniest memory of medical school was receiving the “Coleman Body Beautiful Award” for his willingness to be the patient for a physical diagnosis lecture.

David F. Coppin, MD ’70, completed his OB-GYN residency at Madigan Army Medical Center followed by five and a half years at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, as payback for the army’s paying for his medical education. In 1979 he returned to Logan, Utah, and went into practice. Between the army and his civilian practice, he delivered a total of 8,300 babies before retiring in 2006. He and Kathy have been married for 54 years and have four children, 23 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. All their children and all but one of their grandchildren live in Logan, so they enjoy spending time with family. They also enjoy supporting Utah State University, where he chaired the Dean’s Advancement Council, and for 30 years they have maintained season tickets to both the Utah Opera and the San Francisco Opera.

1971

Kent W. Farnsworth, MD ’71 completed his residency in OB/GYN at the University of Utah after a rotating medicine internship at LDS Hospital. He was an adjunct and then an assistant professor at the Department of Obstretics and Gynecology at the U from 1977-2014, receiving the residents’ Outstanding Clinical Professor Teaching Award twice. He completed two preceptorships in pelvic reconstructive surgery, and from 1994-2012, along with his regular practice, he taught pelvic reconstructive surgery following birth trauma and neonatal resuscitation in China, Cambodia, and Africa, which he found very rewarding. He is married to Ann Wirthlin, and they have four children and 13 grandchildren. They completed an LDS Church mission in Central Florida from 2004-’07. In his spare time, he enjoys watercolor painting, photography, backcountry hiking, and bicycle touring.

1977

James J. Naramore, MD ’77, was named by the Wyoming Medical Society as the recipient of the 2020 Wyoming Physician of the Year. The society gives the award annually “to Wyoming’s top physician in recognition of their contributions to Wyoming communities, honoring the physician for time and personal sacrifice for the benefit of Wyoming and its communities.” Naramore has been in practice in Gillette, Wyoming, since 1978. He has been involved with numerous civic and health organizations, and has traveled to El Salvador, Ukraine, and Ecuador on medical mission trips. Naramore and his wife Karen have four children and six grandchildren.

1991

Gregory E. Biddulph, MD ’91, is a retired orthopedic surgeon who pioneered the planning, construction, and growth of Mountain View Hospital in Idaho Falls, Idaho. At the end of his career, he was called to serve a mission in Brazil as an area medical director. He is so thankful for the cherished friendships with his class of 1991 classmates. He has stayed in contact with just a few but remembers all of them. He said it was a privilege to work in his career, and he wouldn’t change anything about his educational experience.

2000

Thomas H. Hammond, MD ’00 is an otolarynologist in Salt Lake City. He is a frequent volunteer on behalf of the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine whose participation includes Dinner With a Doc, as an admission process interview volunteer, and as a guest speaker on his career and specialty. His hobbies include photography and tennis.