Rudolph A. Klassen, MD 1931-2022

Rudolph A. Klassen, MD 1931-2022Rudolph A. Klassen, MD, died on November 15, 2022. He was 91 years old. A generation of orthopaedic surgeons will always remember his skill, his wit, and his empathy for the suffering of humanity. Rudi was born in the city of Winnipeg in Manitoba, Canada, to Russian Mennonite immigrants. Like many children of immigrant parents, Rudi was expected by his family to succeed in academics. He graduated from the United College of Manitoba in Winnipeg and attended medical school at the University of Manitoba. During medical school he met and fell in love with his future wife, Frieda. They were married after graduation in the spring of 1956. They spent time providing medical care to Hutterite colonies in northern Alberta and Manitoba. Rudi was later recruited to LaMoure, North Dakota, to work as a general practitioner. He practiced there for 5 years, and during that time the seed for an orthopaedic career was planted. He entered the orthopaedic residency program at the University of Minnesota, where he developed an interest in pediatric orthopaedics and spine surgery. As he completed his residency, CARE International opened a children’s hospital in Tunis, Tunisia, prompting the young couple (now with 4 children) to combine those interests with their love of adventure and travel and take on the task. Now responsible for treating patients experiencing the negative effects of polio and congenital deformities, Rudi was initiated into the complexities of his career. During his 2 years in Tunis, he met Dr. Mark Coventry, who was the Chairman of Orthopedics at the Mayo Clinic at the time. When Rudi ended his commitment in Tunisia in 1969, Mark convinced him to join the Mayo Clinic staff in Rochester, Minnesota. Rudi practiced pediatric orthopaedics and spine surgery for nearly 40 years at the Mayo Clinic. His spine surgery career spanned the eras of Risser tables, body casts, and pedicle screw fixation, and he witnessed the transition from traction to 3-dimensional deformity correction. He was not a pioneer but rather a careful and skeptical assessor of each spike of progress. His advice to partners was always frank, encouraging, and practical, and came with an offer to “walk the walk” with you. In recognition of these skills, he was awarded the status of Mayo Physician of the Year in 1996. His residents recognized these qualities as well, honoring Rudi with multiple Teacher of the Year awards over the course of his career. His time as a general practitioner in North Dakota and the years spent in Tunisia left Rudi with a visceral knowledge of, and empathy for, what it was like to feel inadequate for the task at hand. This deep memory enabled him to relate to the hundreds of trainees he encountered. His advice to residents was always frank but supportive, and he engaged with them on a personal basis. He was loyal to them and imparted his assessments with a dry sense of humor. He wrote research articles on occasion and was Associate Professor at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, but his leitmotivs were clinical practice and education. His heart was focused on his patients, the residents, and the medical students. Rudi was also an avid outdoorsman. As a kid, he carried ice cut from the shores of Lake Winnipeg to the local neighborhood by bicycle. As an adult, he helped to map the Northwest Territories for the Canadian Government while on a break from college. He and Frieda even spent their honeymoon camping in a tent outside Jasper National Park, building a cabin for a previous professor. They went on to enjoy many camping and skiing trips with their 4 children. Rudi was not famous on a macro scale, as most of the physicians are whose obituaries are published in JBJS. Instead, he was an exemplar of the many who excel in the trenches of academic orthopaedic surgery: clinical practice and resident education. Such physicians are critically important and deserve recognition. J.R.C. M.E.C.

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