{"doi":"10.1111/jgs.16511","title":"A Tribute to My Mentor on His Transition to Professor Emeritus of Medicine","abstract":"To the editor: My dear Professor Emeritus: When I think of you and the impact you have had on the field of geriatrics, on my professional career, and on the careers of countless others, I am almost at a loss for words, but I am never at a loss for words! So what words actually describe you? Mentor, role model, advisor, advocate, trusted friend and colleague, masterful clinician, brilliant educator, motivating speaker, my “work dad,” renaissance man, and finally, visionary leader. You were one of the first faculty members I met with when I came to our institution in 1998. Our mentoring relationship began immediately. You were a catalyst for career success, not just for me but for so many others. You have taught me so many things. The first lesson was about saying yes. Today, there seems to be a big focus on when to say no. Instead, you taught me early on to say yes, and it has opened countless doors in my career. As an example, when I first arrived, the medical school had just launched a new undergraduate medical school curriculum. You suggested I lead a newly developed aging theme. My initial response was to say no and question how I could fit all of this in with my current job. You told me, and I quote, “You need to say yes and the funding will come.” And you were so right! You also taught me that leaders and mentors put the careers of others before their own. When our institution was selected to send a small team to present a major education grant proposal in person, most universities sent chiefs of geriatrics and deans. However, you advocated to send three very junior faculty members including me. We were specifically asked at the grant review where you were and where our dean was. We simply stated that you believed in us, and we were there to represent our institution—and we came home with the grant. This is not the only grant you were responsible for; you participated in and facilitated grant funding from countless foundations and national funding organizations. Your work is nothing short of extraordinary! I speak on behalf of your mentees and give you our heartfelt thanks. You have motivated us, enabled us, supported us, facilitated grants and awards for us, and promoted our personal growth and professional development. You have recognized our individual potential and helped us reach that potential and beyond. We all have similar stories to share about how you have personally advanced our careers and still continue to do so. We collectively represent your leadership and mentorship legacy. Your impact at our home institution is perhaps matched only by your influence nationally, with leadership roles in major national organizations and professional societies where you directly moved the national agenda forward to benefit not only geriatric healthcare professionals, but the older adult population that we all serve. Let us start with the American Geriatrics Society (AGS) where you have been a long-standing and accomplished member. What role haven't you served for the AGS? You were program committee chair and on the executive committee of the Association of Directors of Geriatrics Academic Programs. You served on the editorial board for our professional journal and were an associate editor for our society's first textbook. You participated in innumerable workshops and presentations through the years. You also delivered a simply amazing geriatrics literature update for years on end, and your final presentation was acknowledged and celebrated by the entire society. Your relationship with national philanthropic organizations, leadership within national professional societies, and the respect you hold is unparalleled. This is evidenced by your membership on the selection committee for one of our field's major education grants, your direction of our institution's geriatric center of excellence for more than 20 years, your invaluable roles within several other national organizations, and your current participation on the advisory b","journal":"Journal of the American Geriatrics Society","year":2020,"id":129537,"datarank":0.0,"base_score":0.0,"endowment":0.0,"self_citation_contribution":0.0,"citation_network_contribution":0.0,"self_endowment_contribution":0.0,"citer_contribution":0.0,"corpus_percentile":null,"corpus_rank":null,"citation_count":0,"citer_count":0,"citers_with_citation_signal":0,"citers_with_endowment":0,"datacite_reuse_total":0,"is_dataset":false,"is_dataset_confidence":0.9577,"is_data_producer":false,"deposit_databanks":null,"is_oa":true,"file_count":0,"downloads":0,"has_version_chain":false,"published_date":"2020-01-01","fair_score":null,"fair_percentile":null,"algorithm_id":"datarank_citation_only_1hop_v6","ranking_scope":"data_only","authors":[{"id":581144,"name":"Annette Medina‐Walpole","orcid":"0000-0002-5461-9162","position":0,"is_corresponding":true}],"reference_count":8,"raw_metadata":null,"created_at":"2026-07-18T23:15:49.682497Z","pmid":"32386330","pmcid":null,"fwci":null,"citation_percentile":null,"influential_citations":0,"oa_status":null,"license":null,"views":0,"total_file_size_bytes":0,"version_count":0,"fair_f":null,"fair_a":null,"fair_i":null,"fair_r":null,"fair_zscore":null,"fair_rationale":null,"fair_model":null,"fair_agent_version":null,"fair_fulltext_source":null,"fair_has_llm":null,"fair_computed_at":null,"clinical_trials":[],"software_tools":[],"db_accessions":[],"linked_datasets":[],"topics":[]}