WMU names med school for medical device pioneer after $100M gift

The anonymous donor who gave Western Michigan University one of the largest gifts ever to a university became public Tuesday when the medical school was named after her grandfather.

Ronda E. Stryker, the granddaughter of the late Dr. Homer Stryker the Kalamazoo orthopedic surgeon and medical device innovator who founded the Stryker Corporation gave WMU $100 million in 2011 for the medical school.

At the time, it was the among the 10 largest cash gifts ever made to an American public university. Stryker gave the donation along with her husband, William D. Johnston, a WMU trustee. Her grandfather died in 1980.

My grandfather always focused on patient outcomes, Stryker said. His innovation work and research was never about himself but always about the patient, better health care outcomes and better equipment for doctors. I am certain he would be thrilled to know that medical education and research are taking place in Kalamazoo.

Officials say the gift served as the foundation funding for development of the medical school, which will welcome its inaugural class in the fall.

Their generosity is allowing our community to create a medical school that will enable generations of young people to make their own marks in the same arena he helped revolutionize, WMU President John M. Dunn said. The Western Michigan University Homer Stryker M.D. School of Medicine is the ideal name for a school that is being developed around the principle of medical innovation that serves the needs of patients.

WMUs medical school will join medical colleges at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Wayne State University, along with Oakland University and Central Michigan University both of which recently welcomed inaugural classes.

About a dozen other medical schools are under development across the nation to address a doctor shortage that will escalate to 90,000 in 10 years, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

The announcement included leaders from WMU and Bronson Healthcare and Borgess Health, which will both serve as teaching hospitals. The new medical school will be a private, nonprofit corporation developed in collaboration with the two hospitals.

The medical schools $68 million, 350,000-square foot home a seven-story renovated research facility donated to WMU in 2011 is nearing completion on its W.E. Upjohn Campus in downtown Kalamazoo.