In Memoriam

Dr. McCollough was president of POSNA in 1984 and of the American Academy of Orthpaedic Sugeons (AAOS) in 1989. In 1999, he was honored with the Distinguished Achievement Award from POSNA, and he was inducted into the POSNA Hall of Fame. Dr. McCollough was a POSNA member for 40 years.

The following tribute was written by Peter F. Armstrong, MD, FRCSC, FAOA, FACS, FAAP, with input from Mary McCollough, Reg Cooper, MD, and Hugh Watts, MD.
 
The world has lost a giant in orthopaedics. Newt McCollough passed away on April 20, 2024, at the age of 89. Those who knew him well, knew that he was a gentle giant. Throughout his exemplary career, he was never focused on himself but always on others. Everything he did professionally was with the goal of improving care to patients. As far as his own practice was concerned, he loved the opportunity to interact with not only the child with an orthopaedic issue but also with the family. He always understood the anxiety that parents have when their child has a problem, especially if the child will require surgery to help resolve the problem. It was always part of his approach to do whatever he could to reduce that anxiety, educating them on the particular condition and then carefully explaining what he was going to do, why he was going to do it, and what to expect.
 
As a leader, he was also always focused on others. He felt that he had a responsibility to help those under him to achieve their very best. His well-recognized skill as a very effective leader led to him being elected as the president of POSNA and AAOS. 
 
His “career” in orthopaedics began when he was a high school student. For as long as he could remember, he wanted to be a doctor. This was undoubtedly due to the influence of his father who was a general practitioner. His father’s practice included a lot of orthopaedics, particularly the management of fractures. He remembers helping his father pin hip fractures. In the community where his dad practiced, there was no portable x-ray for the operating room, so they had to do the surgery on the x-ray table in the radiology department. Newt’s role was to be under the drapes rotating the leg or applying traction as needed. A future orthopaedic surgeon was created!
 
Newt served as a Lieutenant Commander in Vietnam from 1966-1967. He was the Commanding Officer, D Company, 3rd Medical Battalion, 3rd Marine Division. It had a very profound impact on him!
 
He was always a strong believer that an orthopaedic surgeon should also be an orthopaedic physician.  He felt that the heavy focus on surgery and the technical aspects of orthopaedics has resulted in the patient care base being neglected. When he was Chairman of the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Miami, he invited many general orthopaedic surgeons in the community, in addition to the sub-specialty faculty, to be involved in the education of their residents and fellows. He believed that orthopaedic surgeons should be involved, to some degree, in the primary care, non-operative component of their orthopaedic practice. This included being actively involved in the rehabilitative care of the patients on which they had operated. He was asked to address the incoming new members of the AAOS Class of 1999. His address was published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgeons in March 1999. The title is “Of Geese and Golden Eggs.” It is a beautifully written presentation and addresses the above in more detail.
 
In 1985, Newt decided to leave his position at the University of Miami and accept the role of Director of Medical Affairs for the 22 Shriners Hospitals at the headquarters in Tampa, FL. He served in that capacity for 15 years, retiring at the end of 2000. He missed his first love which was the privilege of working directly with children and families and making a difference in their futures. He also missed being able to directly teach and mentor residents and fellows as well as the ability to do clinical research. However, he realized that he had a new opportunity to work on enhancing an entire system of 22 hospitals to improve the care provided to thousands of children. At that time, the care of the patients at the hospitals was mostly provided by several highly respected pediatric orthopaedic surgeons on a part-time basis. There were only two full-time pediatric orthopaedic surgeons on staff. He recognized that the type of patients coming to the hospitals for care was changing. The acuity and complexity of the patients was increasing exponentially, and it was obvious that, to provide the required care, Shriners Hospitals needed to transition to a full-time care model. Newt therefore began the process of recruiting outstanding full-time clinicians and surgeons. When he retired at the end of 2000, over 90 full-time clinicians and surgeons had been hired. That included 60 surgeons and about 30 clinicians such as pediatricians, anesthesiologists, etc. The resources at the hospitals were significantly upgraded to allow the management of the more complex patients to be handled in-house and not transferred to affiliate hospitals. He also worked to improve the comprehensiveness of the care provided. For example, children with spina bifida were provided the full spectrum of care for their various needs at the hospital rather than being referred to specialists outside the hospital. He also led the improvement of transitional care so that children that had become young adults and still in need of care could be transferred to appropriate adult care resources after leaving Shriners Hospitals.
 
There is so much more that could be said. Newt was truly a giant in orthopaedics and his influence on improving the care of children and his teaching and mentoring of pediatric orthopaedic surgeons will be felt for decades to come. He will be missed but certainly not forgotten!
 
He leaves behind Mary, his loving wife of 56 years, Peter, LeeAnne, Christian, and Ashlee Re’ McCollough, San Marcos, CA, and Matt, Amy, Camryn and Chloe Busch, Clearwater, FL.
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View Dr. McCollough's Distinguished Achievement Award interview conducted by Dr. Hugh Watts here.