John W. Kendall, M.D. and Betty M. Kendall - Paul G. Ramsey, M.D. Student Support Fund
Please address your letter to:
Dr. and Mrs. Kendall
John W. Kendall, Jr. M.D. is a remarkable man with an extensive list of accomplishments, awards and accolades. He a world-renowned endocrinologist and researcher, has a distinguished career in academic medicine, years of service in Veteran Affairs as the Distinguished VA Physician and Veteran Academic Affiliations Officer for the Northwest and is the recipient of innumerable honors. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles, 95 articles and book chapters and 86 abstracts.
Dr. Kendall received his B.A. from Yale University in 1952, his M.D. from UW School of Medicine in 1956, followed by a residency in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University from 1956 to 1959. He continued at Vanderbilt as a fellow in endocrinology from 1959 to 1960. He had additional training through an endocrinology fellowship at Oregon Health Sciences University and joined the faculty there in 1962. He served in several capacities at the Oregon Health Science University – as chair of Medicine in the 1970s, the Dean of Medicine from 1983 to 1992 and now as Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus.
Some of his many awards include his selection as the recipient of the 2012 UW Medicine Distinguished Alumni Award, the 2011 OHSU Distinguished Alumni Award and the prestigious Distinguished Physician Award from the Department of Veterans Affairs. He is an elected member of both the American Society for Clinical Research and the Association of American Physicians, and The British Royal Society of Medicine. Dr. Kendall received the Medical Research Foundation Mentor Award in 1992 and the OHSU Department of Housestaff Award in 1976. There are many more accolades that comprise Dr. Kendall’s accomplished career, including election to the West Seattle High School Hall of Fame in the year 2000.
John Kendall was born March 19, 1929 in Bellingham, WA and has been married to Betty since 1954.
In many respects, Betty Meece Kendall led the way for women to join the automotive repair field. Following a harrowing set of negative mechanical experiences in Europe with a new car, which she had purchased there, she took it to the local dealer in Munich and they sent it back to the factory for repairs. The dealer in Munich advised her to become a mechanic since she had, with no prior experience, successfully done so many repairs herself on the road.
After returning home to Portland, Oregon, she followed up on this suggestion and entered the Automotive Technology program at Portland Community College. After graduation, with an Associate of Arts degree in Automotive Repair, she went to work in a local shop and eventually was invited to join the faculty of the Automotive Repair Service Department at Portland Community College, where she became the first woman in the country to teach automotive repair at the post-secondary level. She taught for 17 years there and, among other accomplishments, was the first woman in the country to be certified as a master mechanic by NIASE, the national certifying board. Also during that period of time, she established the Automotive Scholarship program, which has supported nearly 400 full-term scholarships. Eventually, she and other women formed the Association of Women in Automotive, an organization that has been thriving in the West for the last 25 years. Although they actively support all automotive students in the local colleges, they are especially proud of the increasing numbers of women comfortably completing those courses and going on to work successfully in the field.
Betty is a member of the Society of Automotive Engineers. In that capacity she served as chair of the Development Committee of its A World in Motion (AWIM) philanthropy. AWIM is an interactive science, math and engineering curriculum that is currently in 30% of schools nation-wide. In 2002, she received the National Society’s Noble R. Patterson Award for exemplary leadership. That same year, she was elected to the Hall of Fame of her Seattle alma mater.
