![\"\"](\"https:\/\/kualumni.org\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2025\/11\/Seitz-Ellsworth-Kansas.jpg\")
\u201cAs a family physician, he just blossomed,\u201d David says. \u201cHe was a special person to all the residents in and around Ellsworth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David took a circuitous path to medicine. He earned a bachelor\u2019s degree in chemistry at KU and a doctorate in organic chemistry at Northwestern University. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and an assistant professor of chemistry at Northeastern University. Several years later, he decided to combine organic chemistry and medicine and earned his medical degree, specializing in oncology. He held a leadership position in the oncology division at Eli Lilly, was a professor of medicine at Indiana University and was a co-founder of a small biotechnology company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMy parents were both very passionate people, and I think that just rubbed off on me,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To honor and memorialize that passion, David and Katrina established the Joseph and Berenice Seitz Medical Scholarship in 1993, with a preference for students from Ellsworth and those who intend to practice family medicine. To date, the scholarship has assisted 126 medical students with partial scholarships. The recent bequest will expand that scholarship into the largest single scholarship fund at the School of Medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
David thinks his father would be pleased with the scholarship\u2019s impact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe truly recognized how important it is for people in rural Kansas communities to have direct and timely access to a physician,\u201d he says. \u201cI think it would make him smile.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n
Michelle Strickland, j\u201992, is content director at KU Endowment.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n Inspired by his father\u2014a family practitioner in rural Kansas\u2014alumnus pledges $15 million for School of Medicine scholarships.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":46,"featured_media":737,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,17],"tags":[79,55],"class_list":["post-734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-giving","category-university","tag-scholarships","tag-school-of-medicine"],"yoast_head":"\nPhoto illustration by Chris Millspaugh
Seitz family photo courtesy of David Seitz<\/h6>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"