In an announcement from the University of Florida Advancement, more than 65 friends, family members and colleagues have collectively given the University of Florida $1.5 million to endow an orthopaedics professorship in Dr. Bill Petty’s name to commemorate his contributions as one of the all-time greats in his field of total joint arthroplasty. From the article:
In 1969, Dr. Bill Petty, a U.S. Air Force flight surgeon fresh out of medical school, was concerned about his wife, Betty. She was having knee surgery that would keep her in the hospital for several days. Bill stayed by her side, day and night. Throughout the ordeal, Bill talked with Betty’s doctors and quickly became fascinated with their newly emerging field of medicine – orthopaedics. As Betty began to heal, her surgeon allowed Bill to follow him and his residents on their hospital rounds. That event, which some call a coincidence, led Bill to refocus his work, train under one of the country’s foremost experts in hip replacement surgery, seek a University of Florida orthopaedic surgery post, lead his department to renowned status, start a joint replacement manufacturing business and, ultimately, help make knee, hip and shoulder replacement surgeries safe and commonplace.
Read the full news article from the University of Florida Advancement:
