Big heart from a small town

Inspired by his father, a family practitioner in rural Kansas, KU alumnus pledges $15 million for scholarships at KU School of Medicine.

For KU alumnus David Seitz, the town of Ellsworth, Kansas, isn’t just a hometown, it’s the soil that nurtures the deepest roots of his family tree.

That tree bears the fruit of generations of the Seitz family in Kansas who prioritized the health of their community, from the town’s first pharmacists to his mother, a nurse, and his father, the town’s beloved family practice physician.

That legacy of care wove its way through David’s life, and as a researcher, educator and physician himself, he wanted to give more students the opportunity to go to medical school. He and his wife, Katrina, have made a $15 million gift commitment to the University of Kansas School of Medicine for scholarships.

The bequest, once it is realized, will provide the equivalent of 17 full-tuition scholarships for in-state medical students, with preferences for students from Ellsworth and those who plan to go into family practice. He hopes many of those future doctors will put down roots in a Kansas small town.

“It gives me great satisfaction knowing that KU School of Medicine can continue to train family practitioners and not just big-city specialists, because we’ll always, hopefully, have vibrant small communities. And part of what makes them vibrant is having access to quality health care,” Seitz said.  

Leaders in the School of Medicine understand the impact Seitz’s gift will have on students and the health of Kansas for years to come.

“We thank David and Katrina Seitz for this generous gift that will light the way for future family physicians in Kansas,” said Akinlolu Ojo, M.D., Ph.D., MBA, executive dean of the KU School of Medicine. “It has the potential to be life-changing, not just for the lives of the medical students who receive these scholarships but also for the communities they will serve in Kansas. Gifts like these illustrate the power we all have to improve the lives and the health of others.”

Seitz’s great great grandfather, George Seitz, a German immigrant, settled in Ellsworth in 1864, when it was still a military fort. Three years later, the small group of settlers incorporated the town. George Seitz learned pharmacy in Germany by apprenticing to an established apothecary, a practice that predated the development of pharmacy curriculums and degrees. He opened Seitz Pharmacy in the new town, and it still serves the residents of Ellsworth today.

“We are who we are because of the roots my family has in that town,” David Seitz said.

Three generations of the Seitz family owned the pharmacy, until David’s father, Joseph Seitz, took a different path and studied medicine instead of pharmacy. David’s mother, Berenice Payton Seitz, went to Ellsworth School of Nursing at the town’s hospital and worked while Joseph was in school. He earned his undergraduate and medical degrees at KU and came back to Ellsworth to practice family medicine.

“As a family physician, he just blossomed,” David said. “He was a special person to all the residents in and around Ellsworth.”

David took a circuitous path to medicine. He earned a bachelor of science degree in chemistry at KU in 1970 and a doctorate in organic chemistry at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and an assistant professor of chemistry at Northeastern University in Boston. Several years later, he decided to combine organic chemistry and medicine and earned his medical degree, specializing in oncology. He held a leadership position in the oncology division at Eli Lilly, was a professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine and a co-founder of a small biotechnology company.

“My parents were both very passionate people, and I think that just rubbed off on me,” he said.

To honor and memorialize that passion, David and Katrina established the Joseph and Berenice Seitz Medical Scholarship in 1993, with a preference for students from Ellsworth and those who intend to practice family medicine. To date, the scholarship has assisted 126 medical students with partial scholarships. The bequest will expand that scholarship into the largest single scholarship fund at the KU School of Medicine.

Seitz thinks his father would be pleased with the impact of the scholarship.

“He truly recognized how important it is for people in rural Kansas communities to have direct and timely access to a physician,” he said. “I think it would make him smile.”