Ron Gillum '60 Honored for Philanthropic Efforts

April 9, 2009

April 9, 2009, Greencastle, Ind. — Ron Gillum, retired physician and professor and 1960 graduate of DePauw University, is the recipient of the Danville District 118 School Foundation's David L. Fields Outstanding Almunus Award. Dr. Gillum was honored at an event Tuesday night.

Among those Dr. Gillum credits for his success "is Frances Watkins, an American history teacher who encouraged her most promising students to attend her alma mater, DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind.," notes a story in Illinois' Danville Commercial-News. "There, in addition to obtaining his bachelor’s degree, he met his wife, Elizabeth."

The article notes Gillum's major financial gift to the Danville Public Schools Foundation, because -- as the newspaper notes -- he wants young people in the community "to know that they don’t have to have the best circumstances now to achieve great success in their lives ... Gillum wants the money to be used to help kids stay in school and to encourage other kids ... to seek their own success in life."

"You can make a life for yourself," says Dr. Gillum, who graduated from Danville High School. "It really does help to have parents who support you, but if you don’t, you can still succeed."

After earning his DePauw degree, Gillum "graduated from the University of Illinois’ medical school in 1964, and completed his residency in anatomical and clinical pathology at the University of Illinois hospital in Chicago from 1965 to 1969," writes Anna Herkamp. "He served in the U.S. Army from 1969 to 1972 and was stationed in Ethiopia where he researched tropical infectious diseases. He was the director of clinical chemistry laboratories at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston from 1972 to 1975. He was the chemistry lab director and associate professor at the University of Texas medical school’s Hermann Hospital from 1975 to 1977. From 1977 until retirement in 1999 he was at the University of Oklahoma and also worked in Oklahoma veterans’ hospitals."

You'll find the complete story at the newspaper's Web site.

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