Annual Dinner

by Deanna Wooten, DCMS director of membership/member services

Join your colleagues when the new DCMS president is installed at the Annual Dinner, set for Saturday, Jan 31, at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. The reception will begin at 6 pm, with the dinner and program to follow at 7 pm.

Warren E. Lichliter, MD, will become the 121st DCMS president. His prestigious clinical career has led to his position as chief of the Colon and Rectal Surgery Department at Baylor University Medical Center, after serving as president of the Baylor medical staff in 1997 and chairman of its medical board in 1998. He has been a DCMS and TMA member for more than 20 years.

The DCMS board of directors has chosen to honor two people important in Dallas’ family of medicine. The Max Cole Leadership Award will be bestowed on C. Kern Wildenthal, MD, PhD. This award, a crystal eagle, recognizes a DCMS member for outstanding service to the profession of medicine and to the community. The inaugural award was given to Max Cole, MD, in 1985 for his numerous contributions on the local, state, and national levels, and then was named in his honor.

When Dr Wildenthal entered medical school at age 18, he planned to go into family practice and return to a small town to practice. Instead, he trained in internal medicine and cardiology, and received his PhD in cell physiology, planning to go into research. Becoming a full professor in internal medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in 1975, he was named dean in 1976 after serving a year as a Guggenheim fellow at Cambridge. Dr Wildenthal is credited with leading UT Southwestern to preeminence among the world’s medical schools. He has been a DCMS member since 1972.

The DCMS board of directors established the Heath Award in 1989 to recognize and honor a layperson who has provided outstanding leadership and service to medicine and to the Dallas community. The award is given only as the board determines that an individual who has provided significant service merits such recognition. The board selected one of DCMS’ own, Michael Darrouzet, DCMS executive vice president/CEO, to receive the crystal rendition of a rising star.

The Heath Award was named in recognition of the combined 51 years of service and exemplary stewardship to DCMS by previous CEOs Millard J. Heath (1945 to 1975) and Robert L. Heath (1975 to 1996). Mr Darrouzet began his leadership of DCMS upon Robert Heath’s retirement in 1996.

DCMS appreciates the support of annual dinner sponsors: AXA Advisors, Baylor Health Care System, D&M Leasing, Genesis Physicians Group, Humana, SNB Bank of Dallas, TMA Insurance Trust, and Texas Medical Liability Trust.

Cost for the dinner is $65 per person, and black tie is optional. For reservations, contact Connie Webster, DCMS community service director, at 214- 948-3622, ext. 226, or e-mail connie@dallas-cms.org.