WMU names medical school for Dr. Homer Stryker

Dr. Homer Stryker kept his focus on what helped patients recover from their illnesses and the innovations he devised were always centered on better health care and better equipment for doctors.

In acknowledgement of those priorities, his granddaughter, Ronda E. Stryker and her husband, William D. Johnston, donated $100 million to launch the Western Michigan University School of Medicine.

The school now has been named in honor of Dr. Homer Stryker, the Kalamazoo orthopaedic surgeon and medical device innovator who founded the Stryker Corp. The medical technology business he grew in Kalamazoo is now a Fortune 500 company with $9 billion in annual sales and more than 25,000 employees globally.  

"The Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine is the ideal name for a school that is being developed around the principle of medical innovation that serves the needs of patients," Western Michigan University President John Dunn says.

The announcement of the naming of the medical school and a commitment from Stryker Corp. to continue to fund the medical school came March 12 from WMU officials and the CEOs of Borgess and Bronson, who are part of the collaboration behind the school of medicine.

A standing ovation came at the announcement.

"Ronda Stryker and Bill Johnston have given our city, state and nation a wonderful gift that honors Homer Stryker in the most appropriate way possible," Dunn says. "Their generosity is allowing our community to create a medical school that will enable generations of young people to make their own marks in the same arena he helped revolutionize."

Founding Dean Hal Jenson says, "Because of the generosity of Ronda Stryker and William Johnston and other donors in the region, we had the opportunity to start with a blank canvas and create the medical school of the future. We did so, recognizing the need for innovative medical education that would allow us to prepare new generations of medical professionals who would be able to follow the exemplary career of Dr. Homer Stryker.

"The medical school we have developed continues the exceptional legacy in Kalamazoo of innovation in the life sciences. Our graduates will continue in the footsteps of Homer Stryker and will excel as clinicians, leaders, educators, advocates and researchers," Jenson says.

Borgess President and CEO Paul A. Spaude says, "Worldwide, the Stryker name evokes a sense of medical innovation and quality. Here in Kalamazoo, it is synonymous with community commitment. What better name for a medical school that is a true community collaboration."

Ronda Stryker and William Johnston were not present for the event, saying they wanted to focus to be on the school.

In a statement from WMU, Ronda Stryker says she feels strongly that this is the right time for the medical school to be launched and her grandfather would appreciate that medical education is being improved in Kalamazoo.

"His innovation work and research was never about himself but always about the patient, better healthcare outcomes, and better equipment for doctors. I am certain he would be thrilled to know that medical education and research are taking place in Kalamazoo," Ronda Stryker says.

"While he wouldn't care that the school was named after him, it is without doubt a fitting and lasting recognition to his contribution to medicine, medical research, innovative products and service to patient healthcare outcomes."

The new medical school will be on its W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus in downtown Kalamazoo. That site will have a 350,000-square-foot medical research facility now undergoing renovation. It is scheduled to open in mid-2014 and the first class of medical students will be enrolled in the fall.

The site was a gift from MPI Research in late 2011. MPI Research is led by William U. Parfet, great grandson of the campus' namesake, who launched the Upjohn Co. in Kalamazoo in 1886.

"Having the Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine on the W.E. Upjohn M.D. Campus acknowledges the special life sciences legacy that is unique to Kalamazoo," says Frank Sardone, president and CEO of Bronson Healthcare. "Both names reflect the storied traditions that are so much a part of this community--traditions we'll want to introduce to new generations of medical professionals."