Compassion, and what it meant, was a topic talked about at the supper table and taught in the Des Moines parsonage home of the Rev. M. Everett Dorr and Evelyn Dorr, the parents of Lawrence D. Dorr.
Hearing as a youth that giving a helping hand to those in desperate need would be the most powerful thing he could ever do shaped in large part the life of Lawrence Dorr and took him to a distinguished, influential career in medicine and recognition as an internationally renowned orthopedic surgeon.
He was sitting on the parsonage steps as a young boy one day with a physician visiting Des Moines who was explaining to him how he was saving lives in Africa. Dr. Dorr went to his bedroom and broke open his piggy bank filled with pennies. Bringing all of them to the physician, he said, “Here, save more lives. I’m going to become a doctor!”
His humanitarian contributions were a gift to the world, and his pioneering advancements that changed orthopedics were being widely remembered after his death on Monday December 28 at the University of Southern California Keck Hospital in Los Angeles. He was 79.
He is survived by his wife Marilyn Dorr of Pasadena, CA, an Iowan; two sons, Mike Dorr (Tiffany) of Pasadena and Randy Dorr of Salt Lake, UT; daughter Kristy Dorr, and grandson Hunter Dorr of Pasadena; two brothers, David M. Dorr (Jean) of Ballwin, MO, and James of Azusa, CA, nieces, nephews, cousins and many family members in Iowa. Both of Dr. Dorr’s parents are deceased.
Dr. Dorr was born in Storm Lake, IA, but Des Moines was his hometown. His father was pastor of Trinity United Methodist Church in Des Moines. Dr. Dorr was a graduate of Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, and the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.
He did an internship and his residency at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center and then was awarded a fellowship at The Hospital for Specialty Surgery in New York City, prominent for its orthopedic and arthritis care.
Dr. Dorr was a larger-than-life figure in medicine. His genius is written all over every total joint replacement that is performed. In his corner of orthopedics he was incomparable and stood alone because of his innovative research, design of hip implants and surgical techniques he developed. He raised the bar on total joint replacement to an unprecedented position in orthopedics.
The Dorr techniques are in use now by doctors worldwide and thousands of patients are the beneficiaries.
He established the Bone and Joint Institute in Los Angeles, and that made LA an international destination for joint replacement.
He was professor of clinical orthopedic surgery at Keck School of Medicine and practiced at Keck Hospital. Because of his reputation he was sought out by patients and that kept his surgery schedule full. His patients came from the United States and abroad, and they included famed athletes and names known on the stage and in the Hollywood film industry.
He was a founding member and president of the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons, the largest organization of its kind in the world. He also founded the Dorr Institute for Arthritis Research and Education and was a founder of The Knee Society and The Hip Society.
Yet, of all his remarkable accomplishments, it is the birth of Operation Walk in 1996, an idea he had to provide hip and knee surgery at no cost to the poor in developing nations, that is his creation and his legacy.
He saw that expensive surgery which would allow the crippled and disabled to be able to walk, many for the first time in their lives, was for them an unreachable dream. They didn’t have the means to even get to a doctor, much less have hip or knee surgery. So Dr. Dorr would come to them. His compassionate side said those who were suffering need not suffer alone.
Now, there are 13,000 people across the globe who are walking and no longer have to endure debilitating pain. “It’s something they never thought would happen. To them, it’s like a miracle dropping out of the sky,” Dr. Dorr once said.
Operation Walk, a non-profit organization, has grown to 20 chapters in the United States, Canada, Ireland and Thailand.
Surgical missions by Operation Walk teams have been made to Cuba, China, Nepal, the Philippines, El Salvador, Tanzania, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Vietnam. As many as 60 doctors, nurses, physical therapists, anesthesiologists and volunteers make the trips with 9,000 pounds of medical supplies, down to the last Band-Aid. They teach surgery to doctors and educate health care professionals in the countries they visit.
Dr. Dorr’s Operation Walk honors his father whose dream was to become a missionary in the Philippines but was denied the opportunity because of tuberculosis he was stricken with as a child on his family’s farm near Cleghorn, Iowa. Operation Walk’s work is, by extension, that of a missionary, going to a country to perform health care.
Dr. Dorr trained more than 100 Fellows and was a caring teacher, mentoring new Operation Walk chapters.
His stamina was legendary. In nearly 50 years in medicine he was chasing new orthopedic challenges, one after the other, and never stopping until he conquered them. At the hospital he was a ball of energy in scrubs. Those working with him had to step lively to keep up. The heavens opened the night before his death and a noisy thunderstorm lashed LA. The morning of the 28th brought an unusual double rainbow that crossed the LA skies. He didn’t leave us quietly. He was a force of nature.
His brilliance in medicine could be traced to his decisiveness in the operating room. He knew anatomy so well he was not mystified when he encountered a complication during surgery. He paused to figure out the problem and then continued, self-assured and confident.
He was invited by 20 nations to lecture on orthopedics or teach and by 29 universities in the U.S. He wrote 300 scientific papers and book chapters on orthopedics and two novels with medical storylines. At the time of his death he was working on a history of Operation Walk.
He was named on Best Doctors in America lists 14 times and Who’s Who in California and given Distinguished Alumni Awards by the University of Iowa and Cornell College. In 2005 the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons gave him its humanitarian award for Operation Walk. He was the recipient of the Iowa Orthopaedic Society humanitarian award in 2007. He was proud to have been named an honorary member of the Cuban Orthopedic Society.
These meant the world to him: His family. The Lawrence and Marilyn Dorr Chair In Orthopedics at the University of Iowa. The Evelyn and Kristy Dorr Scholarship Fund he and Marilyn endowed at Doane University in Crete, NE, the school from which his mother graduated.
And the Dimensions Program For Health Professions at Cornell he and Marilyn founded and funded that provides undergraduate study and career paths across the spectrum of health care professions.
Launched in 2015, it promotes health awareness campus-wide. Students in the program can decide if their career choices are a good fit by seeing them in real-world situations.
Productive medicine is personal and compassionate. Dr. Dorr wanted students interested in medicine to grasp the doctor-patient relationship and understand that a physician’s care is more than only science and symptoms.
Dimensions sponsors two Cornell students each year on an Operation Walk mission, turning the opportunity into a premier internship for those hoping to go into health sciences.
Dr. Dorr served three years in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps as lieutenant commander. Relentlessly competitive, he was demanding of himself to leave his mark, to experience every delicious moment life had to offer, and football was one of those, which he played at Roosevelt and at Cornell. A defensive tackle, he made life miserable for many a running back.
Among his major loves were golf and the football, basketball and wrestling teams at Iowa. Also a sleek, brown racehorse – a beauty – named Dr. Dorr by Hall of Fame trainer and family friend Bob Baffert that won the Californian Stakes in 2018. And a glass of good, aged Bordeaux wine.
He retired from Keck Medical Center in June 2019. His deep dedication to helping others and his life’s impact will continue to be felt worldwide for decades to come. He was the soul and and the spirit of Operation Walk, and he changed thousands of lives. Those at Operation Walk who shared his passion will carry on his mission. He was an Iowa boy at heart, a preacher’s kid who left a giant imprint on orthopedics. He was put on earth by a Higher Power to become a humanitarian through medicine. He achieved everything, and more, expected of him.
A celebration of his life will take place later in 2021. Dr. Dorr’s family asks that donations in his memory be made to Operation Walk Los Angeles.