Remembering a great leader

Monday, January 01, 2018 12:24 PM

W. Gerald Rainer, MD, Nov. 13, 1927 - Nov. 14, 2017

by Kate Alfano, CMS Communications Coordinator

William Gerald Rainer, MD, a renowned Denver heart surgeon and longtime leader in the Colorado Medical Society, died suddenly of natural causes on Nov. 14, 2017, one day after his 90th birthday. Those who knew him admired him as a pioneer, innovator, teacher and philanthropist, and those who didn’t know him certainly benefited from his tremendous contributions to organized medicine and research.

“Dad was a caring physician,” said William Rainer Jr., MD. “He enjoyed talking to and, indeed, befriending many of his patients. He was an accomplished and adept surgeon and was proud of his excellent results.  Although he practiced in a private hospital setting throughout his career, he was a dedicated academician. He was always involved in multiple clinical and laboratory research projects. In the latter half of his career, he became deeply involved with the University of Colorado providing his expertise working with multiple committees, easily earning his title of ‘distinguished clinical professor.’”

“He taught me a lot, as he taught everybody, about having respect for the privilege of practicing medicine,” said Gerald Zarlengo, MD, a Denver obstetrician-gynecologist who first met Rainer at Saint Joseph Hospital as a third-year medical student and continued interacting with him through residency and his career. “It’s difficult to find the right words. It was more a lesson about not ever taking for granted what this privilege means: You were fortunate enough to get selected to go to medical school and to get a degree in medicine; respect that.”

“He was a consummate teacher; he usually had a fellow, often from a foreign country, and was highly respected by the Saint Joseph surgery residents,” Rainer Jr. said. “He was heavily influenced by and a devout follower of his mentor, Dr. Ben Eiseman. His partnership of 17 years with Dr. Ted Sadler was known by all as a model of excellence.”

Rainer would continually challenge the residents, fellows and even colleagues who came through his operating room or were with him in meetings. To some, he came across as intimidating, but Carl Unrein, who worked with him through the Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation, said it was because he was a natural teacher who demanded excellence. “He had the gentlest personality and if he corrected you it’s so you could become a better person. He was always teaching. He had a love for residents, a love for medicine, and an undying support and love for philanthropy,” Unrein said.

Rainer was born in 1927 as the fourth child in a family of five children in rural Gordo, Ala. According to a biography by the Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation, “The Legacy of Dr. W. Gerald Rainer,” his mother recognized his extraordinary potential and gave him every opportunity she could to flourish.

When the other five-year-olds in town were starting kindergarten, he was enrolled directly into third grade where his gift for quick learning kept him at a pace at or beyond his older peers. He graduated high school at the age of 15 and enrolled at Emory University in Atlanta on a full scholarship. He transferred almost immediately to the University of Alabama School of Medicine to study pre-medicine alongside medical students 10 years his senior. Within two years he completed his undergraduate training and entered medical school at the University of Tennessee School of Medicine at age 17.

During his internship at Wesley Memorial Hospital in Chicago he met a nurse, Lois Sayre, who in 1950 would become his wife and partner, every step of the way. He maintained a successful general medical practice in Blue Island, Ill., and the couple raised four children: Vickie, Julia, William Jr. (Bill) and Leslie.

In response to the Korean War, he volunteered for the U.S. Army Medical Corps as first lieutenant. He served as a battalion surgeon with the Third Infantry in theater from 1952 to 1953 and was awarded the Bronze Star Award and the Combat Medical Badge for his meritorious and brave service in a field of combat.

Returning to the United States, he was posted at the U.S. Army Hospital at Fort Carson in Colorado Springs, Colo. He and Lois chose to stay in Colorado and he completed his service to the U.S. Army with a residency in general surgery at Fitzsimons Army Medical Center in Denver. In 1959, he was the first to complete a fellowship in thoracic and cardiovascular surgery at the University of Colorado. He practiced thoracic and cardiovascular surgery for 50 years with St. Joseph Hospital in Denver as his professional home, and made significant contributions in research and the development of the field of cardiac surgery.

“He did so many things behind the scenes that no one was aware of in terms of steering the mothership of Saint Joe’s, not just in cardiovascular surgery but just the constant push for evidence-based medicine, patient safety and the patient standard – long before they became norms in medicine,” Zarlengo said. “He always, always, always had the concern of the betterment of Saint Joe’s at heart.”

“He was very, very competent,” said Sister Marianna Bauder, who was president and CEO of the hospital for a period in the 1990s. “He knew his work very well. When I was there they used to tease him a little bit that he thought he was the fourth person of the Blessed Trinity but he really cared about the hospital, and he cared especially about the residency programs.” He used his influence to save the residency programs from being shut down by a “short-sighted” administrator and he and Lois donated the Rainer Auditorium in the Russell Pavilion where experts are invited to lecture to medical students and residents, she said.

“He could make things happen behind the scenes because he had been there for so long and he cared about the institution so much,” Bauder said. “I cannot speak highly enough of this wonderful, sincere person who cared a lot about the patients, and that included the patients of the whole hospital. He wanted to make sure we practiced good medicine.”

In addition to his lengthy service as a surgeon, department leader and faculty physician, he held leadership positions with the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Fitzsimons Army Medical Center, the Society of Thoracic Surgeons, the American College of Chest Physicians, the Colorado Medical Society, the Denver Medical Society, the Denver Academy of Surgery, the Rocky Mountain Cardiac Surgical Society and the American Board of Thoracic Surgery.

He is survived by his wife, sister Gypsy Richards, children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. One of Rainer’s grandsons, William Rainer III, who had a special relationship with his grandfather, is in his second year of residency in orthopaedics at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Rainer Jr. said his father’s legacy is “definitely the quality of surgical education at Saint Joseph Hospital. Definitely bringing the Colorado Medical Society through some difficult times; similarly for the Colorado Symphony Orchestra. No question, he has always been generous and charitable. He was a reliable and strong provider for our family, ensuring that each of us children had special opportunities contributing to and shaping our future pathways.”

“He just was a larger-than-life individual who did so much,” Zarlengo said. “And he will be greatly missed.”