Scientist, Scholar, Teacher - Dr. John Barlow's Legacy
Dr. John Ford Barlow, a stalwart champion of the University of South Dakota School of Medicine and leader in establishing the Rapid City campus of the Sanford School of Medicine, passed away in September at the age of 91 at his home in Rapid City.
Born in 1933 in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, Barlow graduated from Montclair Academy in 1951 and from Dartmouth College in 1955. He finished a two-year medical program at Dartmouth in 1957 and received his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1958. It was during his time at Dartmouth that John met his wife-to be, Anne, and the couple married in 1957. They would eventually welcome two daughters into their home. Barlow completed his pathology residency at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston in 1963 and then spent two years of active-duty service at Womack Army Hospital at Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina.The story of Dr. Barlow’s substantial impact on the USD School of Medicine also begins on the East Coast, where he worked alongside Dr. Karl Wegner at Massachusetts General, both as enthusiastic pathology teachers.
Dr. Karl Wegner, a South Dakota native, convinced Dr. Barlow to relocate to the Midwest and join him in practice in Sioux Falls, and so Dr. Barlow became a partner at the Laboratory of Clinical Medicine (LCM) in 1965 – a move that would change the trajectory of his career and make an indelible impression on the USD School of Medicine and the landscape of health care in South Dakota.
During his tenure at the LCM, he taught pathology at the University of South Dakota Medical School and medical technology at Sioux Valley Hospital, helping to develop Sioux Valley into a regional clinical leader. Dr. Barlow joined the clinical faculty of the USD School of Medicine in 1966 and quickly rose to the rank of full professor by 1972.
Dr. Barlow was also instrumental and a close collaborator with Dr. Karl Wegner in the transition and accreditation process of the USD School of Medicine from a two-year program to an M.D.- granting program. Dr. Wegner would become dean of the SSOM in 1974 until his retirement in 1980.
By all accounts, Dr. Barlow created an atmosphere of excellence and patience. The chair of medicine at that time, Dr. Robert Talley, recalled that Dr. Barlow’s standards of scholarly activity gave the school a “milieu of academic excellence.”
“As his student and eventually a colleague, I am in awe of the many contributions in medical education and the practice of medicine made by this very humble man,” said Dr. Rodney Parry, dean of the SSOM from 2005-2011. “Not only was his influence felt by thousands of South Dakota medical students, practicing physicians, and other health care workers but by everyone in this state who has received medical care.”
Barlow’s dedication to the medical school continued with his transition to the Clinical Laboratory of the Black Hills in Rapid City in 1984, leading it into an integrated medical system for western South Dakota.
Dr. Charles Hart was a second-year medical student at USD in 1972 when he met Dr. Barlow, his pathology teacher. The arcs of their careers mirrored one another, as they eventually became peers in medicine, practicing medicine in Rapid City together, with Dr. Hart in emergency medicine and Dr. Barlow in pathology. The two served on various committees together, and both went on to serve the Rapid City area further, Dr. Hart as CEO of Regional Health, and Dr. Barlow as chair of the board of trustees there.
“Dr. Barlow was a great teacher and a nice person, one of the most intelligent individuals I’ve ever known,” said Dr. Hart.
With a shared passion for the arts, the two men would cross paths often, personally as well as professionally, as active members of the Black Hills arts community.
The Barlows were involved in fundraising for numerous local arts organizations and Dr. Barlow served on the board of the Black Hills Playhouse. The couple was honored with an Outstanding Support by an Individual award by Arts South Dakota in 2003 for their continued support and encouragement of the arts.
Dr. Hart attested, “At class reunions, when I talk to medical school alumni, many of them say Dr. Barlow was the best professor they’d had. He had an amazing, brilliant mind and was an amazing teacher, one of those unforgettable teachers you remember the rest of your life."
Dr. Barlow committed his career to the education of students and physicians. As a key pathology instructor at the medical school, he received numerous teaching awards and was inducted into the prestigious South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2016 for his impact on South Dakota’s medical landscape.
Yet he always showed humility in his career achievements. In 2016 Dr. Barlow told the South Dakota Hall of Fame, “I was lucky. I had a lot of opportunities in education. The field of medicine will always change, but the service to patients and what you do will always be the same.”
He continued to practice and teach until his retirement in 2003. With his enthusiastic support, Rapid City physicians developed a comprehensive campus for medical student education that continues today.
“He was practically a part of our family,” said Dr. Hart. “He wrote recommendation letters to Dartmouth University, his alma mater, for both my daughters, and he even attended their Dartmouth graduations. He was an incredible man and person.”
Before his passing, Dr. Barlow had penned a letter requesting that Dr. Hart deliver Barlow’s eulogy at his memorial service. In it, Dr. Hart shared colorful anecdotes from Dr. Barlow’s teaching days and inspirational lessons from his lifetime of service to USD SSOM and the community at large.
“I was so honored,” stated Dr. Hart. “What an incredible person he was – and he thought enough of me that he asked me to deliver a last message on his behalf. It was one of my life’s biggest honors.”
