The Department of Surgery is the grateful beneficiary of $100,000 from the estate of Mrs. Maida M. Wichern to establish the Homer E. Wichern, MD, Class of S’44 Surgical Fellowship Fund, in honor of her late husband.

Dr. Wichern graduated from Jefferson Medical College in the second of two classes for the year 1944, known as the Class of September 1944. During World War II, Jefferson students were placed on an accelerated curriculum in an effort to provide 500 to 600 new doctors by 1945. Students during these years completed medical school in three years instead of four. Dr. Wichern practiced surgery at Iowa Health - Des Moines for many years. He passed away in 1988. His widow, and wife of 46 years, Maida, died in December 2010.

The Wichern’s endowed gift to Jefferson will remain in perpetuity with income from the fund supporting the surgical fellowship program each year. The fund will support the department’s well qualified post graduate trainees as they acquire advanced knowledge and skill in their particular fields of specialty. The department currently offers fellowships in transplant surgery, colorectal surgery, vascular & endovascular surgery, minimally invasive surgery and hepatopancreaticobiliary surgery, and will be initiating a bariatric surgery fellowship in July 2012.

For additional information about planned giving, or to make a contribution to the Department of Surgery, please contact Lara Goldstein in the Jefferson Foundation at 215-955-8797 or lara.goldstein@jefferson.edu.