2012 Frederick K.M. Plessner Memorial Award Call for Nominations
This is a call for nominations for the 2012 Frederick K.M. Plessner Memorial Award. The award consists of a $1,000 stipend and a commemorative silver bowl. It honors a California Medical Association (CMA) member physician residing and practicing in California who best exemplifies the practice and ethics of a rural practitioner. Eligible for nomination are physicians currently in active practice or recently retired, i.e., retired from active practice for a period of no longer than three years. The selection process shall take into consideration services donated by the physician to the indigent or services rendered to charitable groups.
Nominations should be accompanied by a biography, a statement of the candidate's accomplishments in the field of medicine and the community at large, and any other pertinent documentation that will support the nomination. In the past, successful nominations have been those that included endorsements from present or former patients, colleagues, leaders of civic and service organizations, and / or articles in newsletters or newspapers that highlight interesting anecdotes about the individual's life, medical practice, and community involvement. I would appreciate receiving your nomination by May 25, 2012. Please send all nominations to:
CMA Committee on Nominations
ATTN: Ginnie Yee
221 Main Street, Suite 560
San Francisco, CA 94105
CMA's board of trustees, on recommendation of the Committee on Nominations, will make the final decision on the award recipient.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
James T. Hay, MD
President, CMA
Frederick K.M. Plessner Memorial Award
The Award
California Medical Association’s Frederick K.M. Plessner Memorial Award is presented to the CMA member physician residing and practicing in California who best exemplifies the ethics and practice of a rural country practitioner. Mr. Plessner requested in his will that, in selecting the winner, consideration be given to services donated by the physician to the indigent or services rendered to charitable groups.
The Plessner Award traditionally is presented at the CMA House of Delegates meeting.
The CMA board of trustees selects the Plessner Award recipient. Nominations for the award are submitted by CMA’s component county medical societies, reviewed by the CMA Committee on Nominations, which makes a recommendation to the CMA board of trustees.
The award, consisting of $1,000 and a commemorative silver bowl, is financed with income from a $50,000 endowment as stipulated in Mr. Plessner’s will.
Besides the Frederick K.M. Plessner Memorial Award presented by CMA, a similar award is presented in Michigan through the Michigan State Medical Society and the University of Michigan. Mr. Plessner’s estate also underwrites the Frederick and Besse Moulton Plessner Loan Fund for medical students at the University of Southern California.
Who Was Frederick K.M. Plessner?
Frederick K.M. Plessner, though not a himself a physician, was the son, grandson, and great-grandson of physicians held great admiration for the medical profession.
According to accounts of relatives, Mr. Plessner worshiped the American dream, Horatio Alger, and the self-made man. Fred Plessner never had any financial help or a business partner, and he never had an employer throughout his entire working life. He made his fortune operating a chain of theaters on the East Coast and florist shops on the West Coast, and, for the last 25 years of his life, built and managed apartments in Southern California.
Frederick Plessner was born in Saginaw, Michigan, in 1889, was graduated from the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business and Finance, and earned a commission as a cavalry officer during World War I.
Mr. Plessner was a lifelong bachelor. According to his nephew, “In all his life, he never smoked, never drank, and the most profane word he was ever heard to use was ‘rascal.’ A ‘rascal’ was someone who had cheated him out of a sum of money in excess of $100,000. Lest you think Fred Plessner weird, at his death he left a female blond 30 years his junior in a condo in Spain. Fred Plessner never married because he felt it was illogical as smoking cigarettes.”
Mr. Plessner’s generosity is attributed to his esteem for the medical profession and his gratitude for the handsome scholarship he received to Wharton School of Business. It is said he was most grateful to higher education as an institution for having made his way of life possible.