Thomas L. Stern, MD

Thomas L. Stern, MD, of Sun Lakes, Arizona, was born in 1920 in San Francisco, California and passed away on May 28, 2011. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1941 and served for four years in the medical corps and V-12 training units. Two years after his departure from the Navy, Stern completed his undergraduate work at Williamette University in Salem, Oregon. In 1950, he graduated from the University of Oregon Medical School in Portland and proceeded to complete both a rotating internship and a Resident/General Surgery internship at St. Vincent’s Hospital.

"Dr. Tom Stern made a huge impact on the AAFP Foundation, the AAFP and many of us as individuals...He was a dear friend and a mentor of mine."
Dan Ostergaard, MD

Dr. Stern’s first practice was a partnership in Sherwood, Oregon, which he maintained from 1952 to 1960. Following a move to Manhattan Beach, California, Stern ran a solo practice for 14 years, during which time he was on the medical staffs at Harbor General, Santa Monica Hospital and Medical Center and the South Bay District Hospital where he was the Vice Chief of Staff in 1965.

"We have lost a great leader, one who took risks and fought hard for the values we share. I still have his book House Calls, inscribed by Tom: 'Thank God we are FPs."
Dr. Robert Taylor

From 1970 to 1974, Stern was the Director of the Family Practice Residency Training Program at Santa Monica Hospital Medical Center. It was during this time that he was tapped to serve as technical adviser to the Marcus Welby, MD. television show on ABC. He served in that capacity until 1974, when he moved to Kansas City to become Director of the AAFP Division of Education. He served the AAFP in several other capacities, including founder of the Residency Assistance Program (RAP), Vice President of Education and Scientific Affairs, Deputy Executive Vice President, and founder of the AAFP Home Study Self Assessment Program (HSSA). When he retired from the AAFP in 1983, he moved to the Family Health Foundation of America (now the AAFP Foundation) to become its first Vice President of Professional and Corporate Affairs. He retired from that position in 1991.

"Tom was a great help and valued leader in the early days of our Family Medicine educational and training efforts....He is and will be missed."
Dr. Ted Phillips

Among his many positions, he served as president of the California Academy of Family Physicians (1972), president of the International Center for Family Medicine (ICFM), and Consultant to the Surgeon Generals of the Army and Navy (1974-1979). His awards include the STFM Certificate of Excellence (1979), the AAFP Award of Merit (1982), the AAFP Thomas W. Johnson Award for Excellence in Education (1985), and the AAFP John G. Walsh Award for Leadership in Family Practice Education (1991). Following his retirement from the AAFP Foundation in 1991, the Thomas L. Stern, MD Lectureship was established in his honor, to be given at the annual RAP Workshop (now Residency Program Solutions conference).

In 2001, Stern published his autobiography, House Calls: Recollections of a Family Physician. Dr. Stern also served on the CHFM Board of Curators from 1996-2002 as an At-Large Curator.