April 22, 2003

Contact: Christopher Crenner, M.D., KU School of Medicine, (913) 588-7040.

KU medical student receives national Osler Medal for historical essay

KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- University of Kansas medical student Walter N. Ingram of Stuebenville, Ohio, has won the national Osler Medal by the American Association for the History of Medicine for his essay on racial integration of clinical education at KU in the 1930s.

He will receive the medal during the May 1 through 4 conference of the American Association for the History of Medicine in Boston. Ingram is the 55th recipient and the third KU medical student to win the medal in the award's 62-year history.

Ingram's essay examined the history of Dr. Edward Williams, the first African-American graduate of the KU medical school.

KU and Johns Hopkins medical school are tied for the number of students receiving the medal. Schools with more than three medals include Yale University, McGill University in Canada, Harvard University and the University of Pennsylvania.

"Dr. Ingram's paper on the integration of clinical education at the university in the late 1930s provided an exceptionally astute and powerfully expressed account of this pivotal event in the life of our school," said Dr. Christopher Crenner, interim chair of the history and philosophy of medicine. The essay offered a keen historical assessment of the people and events that surrounded Williams' graduation at KU, Crenner said.

In May, Ingram will graduate from the School of Medicine with his M.D. degree. He plans to move with his family to Biloxi, Miss., to join the Air Force residency program in internal medicine. Ingram received his bachelor's degree in engineering mechanics from the U.S. Air Force Academy.

He is the son of Keith and Janie Dorsey of Wintersville, Ohio. He and his wife, Tanya, have two children, Nicholas and Taylor. Tanya is the daughter of Verdell and Izetta Taylor of Lawrence.