Heritage Snapshot: Part 175

Roy V. Jutzy, MD (CME Class of 1952), was a Cardiologist. He originally planned on going into business and even studied business in college. But while serving in the United States Army he trained to be a dental lab technician. That led to an interest in dentistry. But when he noticed that dentists at that time spent most of their time on their feet, and from the influence of his brother (a student physician) he decided to study medicine. Roy was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, on May 4, 1924. He and his brother Donald were reared in Oregon by his mother, a secretary for the local conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Roy moved to Washington to attend Auburn Academy and Walla Walla College, where he earned his own tuition. He met his wife Betty Sargeant during their senior year at Auburn Academy and continued his relationship with her at Walla Walla College. Roy began a three-year stint in the United States Army in 1943. The Jutzys were married in September 1944 in Seattle, Washington, and eventually had four sons and one daughter. Originally, because of a lack of sufficient funds, the study of medicine wasn’t even one of Roy’s options. But the GI Bill and his working wife made it all possible. He started medical school at the Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists in 1947. Following his graduation from CME in 1952, he entered private practice in Cle Elum, Washington, until 1955. The Jutzys then moved to the Philippines where Roy became a medical missionary and practiced OB/GYN, Pediatrics, and General Medicine. Four and a half years later, in 1959, he entered an Internal Medicine residency at the Los Angeles County General Hospital and completed a fellowship in cardiology at the White Memorial Hospital in 1963. Dr. Jutzy originally planned on beginning a partnership with one of his classmates in Loma Linda. But when asked by School of Medicine Dean David B. Hinshaw, Sr., MD, in 1963 to direct a group of 12 student physicians at the Riverside General Hospital, he started one of the first clinical arrangements in the consolidation of the School of Medicine from Los Angeles to Loma Linda. These students from the upper half of the junior class went to Riverside for a year, had to overcome some prejudices, did very well, and became known as “The Twelve Apostles.” Earlier, as a fellow in cardiology at the White Memorial Hospital, Dr. Jutzy became acquainted with the Loma Linda University Overseas Heart Surgery Team. He helped C. Joan Coggin, MD, run the heart-lung machine at “the White” and at the Los Angeles County General Hospital. He joined the Heart Team as a cardiologist in 1969 and over the years served with them in Greece, South Vietnam, Saudi Arabia, and during three trips to China. Dr. Roy Jutzy was chief of the Loma Linda University School of Medicine’s Department of Medicine Section of Cardiology from 1976 to 1990 and Chair of the Department of Medicine from 1990 to 1995. He retired in 1998. Dr. Jutzy’s greatest joy throughout his career was in taking care of people, seeing them get well, and helping them to have a better way of life. But he also enjoyed teaching. He especially enjoyed seeing students mature and “become better than I was. That’s one of the joys of teaching,” he said.