Tad Jacobs, D.O. '81, was drawn to osteopathic medicine after working as an orderly in an osteopathic hospital in Youngstown, Ohio. "It was just different there. The doctors would sit at the patients' bedside, hold their hands, give a hug, touch a shoulder," he recalls. "And I got a lot of support and encouragement from those doctors."
He enrolled at the College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery (COMS), now Des Moines University Medicine and Health Sciences, which then had an accelerated three-year program. He found his stride and lasting friendships.
"It was year-round and intensive, but being around colleagues from across the country with like passions was wonderful," he says. "I'm still friends with most of the people who were around my anatomy table."
Dr. Jacobs and his wife, Kathy, whom he met as a licensed practical nurse, have given back to DMU financially through the years. Their daughter, Kristin Dunn, is a 2007 graduate of DMU's physician assistant program. As Dr. Jacobs contemplated his retirement in January 2020 as chief medical officer at Avera Medical Group in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, the couple began discussing the primary causes they wanted to support. DMU was among them.
They worked with the University's development staff to make an estate gift to support its College of Osteopathic Medicine. With this contribution, they became members of DMU's Founder's Society, which recognizes individuals who have supported DMU with lifetime giving of $100,000 and more.
Dr. Jacobs practiced family medicine for 28 years in Flandreau, South Dakota, and then used his experience to lead Avera, beginning in 1993, in experimenting with telemedicine. The organization went on to achieve world prominence with its multiple telemedicine programs.
"It was an interesting transition for me, being on the rural country doc side and then being involved at the system level," he says. "I was very interested in what we could do to improve health care in rural America."
You can improve health care for generations by investing in tomorrow's physicians with an estate gift to DMU. Contact Stephanie Greiner, M.S. at (515) 271-1386 or stephanie.greiner@dmu.edu to learn how you can personalize your legacy.