I met Dr. Gladney in my first two to three weeks of medical school. He was the only Black faculty member that I saw there. As one of two African Americans enrolled at SLU and the only one who graduated in my class, that was important to me.
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April 2022—William R. Bond, Jr., MD
As Dr. Bond related, Dr. Gladney obtained specialty training at the Eye & Ear Infirmary at the University of Illinois (UI) in Chicago and the Hines Veterans Administration Hospital in Hines, Ill. “From what he told me, [the UI training] was a combined program of otolaryngology and ophthalmology,” said Dr. Bond. “At the time, most people were going the ophthalmic route because they could do refractions and make more money, but John chose to do otolaryngology. He was told that the field was going to die because penicillin had been discovered and people thought that it could take care of disease without having to do the old German operations that were being done in Europe—mastoidectomy and the like—but John stuck with otolaryngology.”
In 1956, Dr. Gladney returned to St. Louis as only one of two otolaryngologists in the entire St. Louis area. He worked on staff at several area hospitals and was a professor at Washington University and at the Saint Louis University (SLU) School of Medicine, where he ultimately became chairman of the department of otolaryngology. In 2000, the SLU School of Medicine established the John H. Gladney Diversity Award, given annually to a fourth-year SLU medical student or faculty member who has contributed significantly to the promotion and enhancement of diversity within the medical school.
Active Mentoring
A keen observer of people, Dr. Gladney had a deep understanding that every individual is the sum of their life experiences. In treating patients, he looked beyond symptoms to social and environmental factors, and picked up on details and nuances that enabled him to see the whole picture. His recognition of labyrinthine dysfunction in his high-risk population of diabetes patients led to his Triological Society thesis and, ultimately, to additional published work on the topic in 1970 (Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 1970;79:984-991) and 1978 (Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 1978;87:128-134).
Although not as much a matter of record as his achievements in medicine, Dr. Gladney’s interest in and involvement with his students have proven just as impactful. “I met Dr. Gladney in my first two to three weeks of medical school,” recalled Dr. Bond. “He was the only Black faculty member that I saw there. As one of two African Americans enrolled at SLU and the only one who graduated in my class, that was important to me. He made quite an impression on me.”