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Frank Jobe passes
Frank Jobe, MD, renowned as the father of the Tommy John surgery, died Thursday, March 6, in Santa Monica, Calif., at age 88 years.
After earning his medical doctorate at Loma Linda University, Jobe completed his orthopedic residency at Los Angeles County Hospital. A clinical professor in the department of orthopedics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine and founder and medical director of the Biomechanics Laboratory at Centinela Hospital Medical Center in Los Angeles, Jobe was a major contributor in the medical professional community, contributing to more than 140 medical publications, author of 7 books and 24 book chapters.
Jobe was the long-time team physician and medical director for the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he performed numerous groundbreaking surgeries. He was also an orthopedic consultant to the Los Angeles Lakers, Los Angeles Kings and Los Angeles Angels, as well as the long-time medical director for the PGA Tour and Senior PGA Tour.
Co-founder of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic, Jobe has served in leadership roles for a number of professional organizations, including as chairman of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine, vice president of the American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons Association, president and secretary of the Major League Baseball Physicians Association and program chairman of the Western Orthopedic Association.
He is survived by his wife, four sons and eight grandchildren.
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I had the privilege of knowing Dr. Frank Jobe my entire orthopedic career. His accolades have been well expressed by the newspapers and by other colleagues. What I remember and cherished from my interactions with Frank was that he was always a gentleman, humble and listened to the ideas of others. He was an underlying good person. He had a subtle somewhat self-effacing humor that one came to appreciate the more they were around him.
Frank Jobe was the type of man that did our profession proud and he will be missed by his friends, patients and family. It was a privilege to know him for many years.
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Frank Jobe was a great man. You only had to meet him once to know his kindness, thoughtfulness, compassion and passion for sports medicine and caring for people – not just athletes, but people.
Everyone who knows him has a story that reflects on the impact that he had on so many of us. My story is about a faculty dinner. He was the keynote speaker and I was one of the faculty at the University of Michigan shoulder course earlier in my career. When we went to sit down at dinner, he sat right next to my teenage daughter, Brianna. Throughout the night, he was engaged with many at the table, but he always came back to his conversation with her. He mentioned how he brought his son to meetings when he was younger, and now he was a prominent orthopedic surgeon. He complimented me in making the effort to share time with her and he complimented her making the effort for me. What was most telling about him is that I did not tell my daughter about all that he had done. Later that night when I did share with her his accomplishments, she was astonished because he seemed like such an amazing warm person, like a caring grandfather, who was more interested in what her life was about than anything about his. That is the man I have admired, not for what he did that made the headlines, but for what he did that made people think he was sincerely interested in their lives and ambitions.
I was blessed to have the opportunity to meet him.