Robert S. Sparkman, MD: Surgeon, Teacher, Scholar, Artist, Friend: 1912–1997

Abstract

Bob Sparkman was born in Brownwood, Texas. He attended college and graduate schools in Waco and Dallas, and received his MD in 1935. He served an internship at the Cincinnati General Hospital and a year in pathology at Baylor Hospital, followed by a year in surgery in Lexington, Kentucky, and a surgical residency from 1938 to 1940 at the Cincinnati General Hospital under Professor Mont R. Reid. FIGURE Figure. Robert S. Sparkman, MD After his medical training, he served tours of duty in Australia, New Guinea, and the Philippines during World War II. He was chief surgeon of the First Evacuation Hospital in North Carolina, but later was promoted to surgical chief and commanding officer of the 248th General Hospital. In addition, he was chief of a Mobile Surgical Team in the Luzon invasion and liberation of Manila. During his military service, Bob earned the Distinguished Unit Citation with Oak Leaf Cluster, the Bronze Star, three Battle Stars, and an Invasion Arrowhead. He ended his military career as a full Colonel and Chief Surgeon at Ashford General Hospital in McKinney, Texas. Bob returned to Dallas to begin an outstanding surgical career that included the establishment of academic, teaching, and research programs at several Dallas hospitals, and service as a civilian consultant to the Army Surgeon General. He served as a Governor of the American College of Surgeons from 1962 to 1970, and obtained high office in a number of other surgical societies, including the presidencies of the Dallas Society of General Surgeons and the Texas Surgical Society, and the vice-presidency of the American Surgical Association. In 1978, he served as President of the Southern Surgical Association. For twelve years, Bob served as Chief Surgeon of the Department of Surgery at the Baylor Medical Center and was a great mentor to his residents, who idolized him. During this time, he founded the Society of Baylor Surgeons, composed of former House Officers. He was also chairman of the Association of Program Directors in Surgery. Bob contributed many papers to the surgical literature and was widely sought after as a visiting professor and guest lecturer. He was a student of the history of surgery, with particular contributions to documenting the history of surgery in Texas. To honor the members of the Texas Surgical Society, he commissioned the construction of a gavel of wood from the deck of the battleship Texas. This gavel was presented to the American Surgical Association at the 1978 meeting in Dallas. A second gavel was presented to the Southern Surgical Association during Dr. Sparkman’s presidency in 1978. This gavel was made from the wood of a pecan tree from the San Jacinto battlefield. He was also the unofficial historian of the American and Southern Surgical Associations. Bob published several historical books and, just prior to his death, was writing a history on early Texas physicians. Unquestionably, his greatest historical project was the editorship of a detailed history of the first 100 years of the Southern Surgical Association, a professional group dear to his heart. In 1986, the Robert S. Sparkman Chair in Surgery was established at Baylor University Medical Center. In 1995, the North Texas Chapter of the American College of Surgeons established the Sparkman Endowed Lectureship, and in 1996, the Library as well as the Conference Center at Baylor University Medical Center were named in Dr. Sparkman’s honor. In addition to his medical achievements, Bob was an excellent amateur artist and calligrapher, and an avid collector of old maps, French floral prints, and the works of the naturalist James J. Audubon. Bob and his wife, Willie, had a wonderful life together. Willie always accompanied Bob to surgical meetings, and they were well-known and loved by the members and spouses of the Southern and American Surgical Associations. Each year on Willie’s birthday during the 55 years of their marriage, Bob presented her with a fresh gardenia from his carefully tended garden. For two years after his death, Willie reports that she discovered one lovely gardenia blooming in their garden on her birthday in September, even though she says that bush had never before bloomed out of season.