An Alumnus Gives Back

Greg Schuchard, M.D.

From the Heart

Interventional cardiologist Greg Schuchard shows his appreciation for Duluth’s family medicine focus by giving back.

Three years ago, Gregory Schuchard, M.D., took stock of his career and achievements and concluded it was time to act. The 1979 University of Minnesota Medical School–Duluth graduate made a $100,000 commitment to fund a scholarship for a student who starts medical school in Duluth.

“I decided that it was time to give back, right now, while I had the opportunity to influence how my contribution was used, to see the results, and even challenge my classmates to consider doing something similar,” Schuchard says.

Now an interventional cardiologist at the Prevea Health Clinic in Green Bay, Wisconsin, Schuchard specified that the scholarship be awarded based on financial need to candidates who have successfully overcome the greatest personal, professional, or financial challenge in becoming a family physician. 

“I could have given the scholarship to a straight-A student, but I believe that they get plenty of opportunities,” he explains. “Instead, I wanted to support a student who has to overcome challenges to become a doctor, because when you have to work hard for your education, you value it more.”

The son of a teacher and a department store employee, Schuchard paid for his own education at Mankato State University, Gustavus Adolphus College, and then at the University of Minnesota Medical School–Duluth campus.  

Although he initially intended to become a family physician, Schuchard felt the pull of interventional cardiology. “I had every intention of becoming a family physician,” he reflects, “but over time I just related more to people with heart problems and found the technical and procedural aspects of my specialty especially challenging and rewarding.”  

After his three-year residency at the Mayo Clinic Graduate School of Medicine, Schuchard completed his cardiovascular fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin, and has been in private practice since 1985.

Despite his own career choice, Schuchard appreciates family physicians’ role. “Even though I did not choose that path, I value the family docs who I work with every day. They work so hard for their patients, make important diagnoses, and by referring their patients to me for specialty care, can help us save a lot of lives.”

Elizabeth Wheatley (center), from Wyoming, Minnesota, has been awarded a Schuchard scholarship two years in a row. A third-year medical student, Wheatley this fall entered the University’s Rural Physician Associate Program.  Students in the program live and train in rural communities under the supervision of family physicians and preceptors. 

“Becoming a family physician is important to me because I like the idea of providing continuity of care to patients,” Wheatley says. “Dr. Schuchard’s scholarship has come at just the right moment in my life. During the last two years, many of my family members have been seriously ill. Concentrating on school while dealing with that stress has been challenging.”  

Establishing the scholarship fund now, rather than at the end of his career, made sense to Schuchard. “Some people give at retirement or even in their wills, but I wasn’t interested in that,” he says. “I wanted to tell the school that educated me that I appreciated them.  I wanted to do it while I’m young enough to see what it accomplishes and to be personally involved. 

“If there’s one thing I believe strongly,” Schuchard concludes, “it’s that we physicians are all part of a continuum, and we need to help the generation that follows us. When I can put my good fortune and my imprint on the school that helped me—that’s rewarding.”