[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Page 15087]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        RETIREMENT OF DR. TALLEY

 Mr. JOHNSON. Mr. President, I rise today to acknowledge the 
work of a wonderfully talented individual, whose leadership has helped 
the University of South Dakota Medical School grow, and advance an 
excellent reputation within the national health care community during 
his 17-year tenure as dean. At the age of 68, Dr. Robert Talley retires 
from his role as dean to become the University of South Dakota's 
interim director for internal medicine residency in Sioux Falls, where 
he will continue to teach and guide our South Dakota medical community.
  Dr. Talley graduated from the University of Michigan in 1958 and from 
the University of Chicago Medical School in 1962. He went on to Yale 
New Haven Hospital where he pursued an internship and residency. He 
then completed cardiology and clinical pharmacology fellowships at 
Grady Memorial Hospital in 1969.
  Dr. Talley's career took him to various positions in San Antonio, 
with the University of Texas Medical School and Veterans Administration 
Hospital from 1969 through 1975. He became the chairman of the USD 
Department of Internal Medicine in 1975, and was promoted to dean in 
1987. Dr. Talley was a founding member of the Medical Service Plan, the 
predecessor of University Physicians.
  While Dr. Talley served as dean, the medical school received full 
accreditation during each review. Dr. Talley developed a model of 
medical student clinical education, which is considered cutting edge in 
the United States, and helped to form unique partnerships with the 
South Dakota Health Science Research Foundation and the Wegner Health 
Science Information Center. In the past 5 years, funded research in the 
basic biomedical sciences division alone grew 189 percent, resulting in 
great part from Dr. Talley's reorganization of the basic biomedical 
sciences division at the university. Dr. Talley provided outstanding 
leadership in medical education and is responsible for significant 
innovation in USD's approach to the education of South Dakota's health 
care providers.
  At the national level, Talley is a member of the Liaison Committee on 
Medical Education, which accredits 125 undergraduate medical education 
programs in the United States. He served as chair of the American 
Medical Association Section on Medical Schools and chair of the 
Internal Medicine Committee, National Board of Medical Examiners. Most 
recently, the American College of Physicians--American Society of 
Internal Medicine bestowed a Mastership rank on Dr. Talley in 
recognition of his distinguished contributions to internal medicine.
  Dr. Talley could have devoted his talents to private practice. But 
instead he chose to be an educator--he chose to use his skills in a 
manner that would enable him to reach a wide circle of individuals and 
which has had profoundly important public policy consequences.
  He knows his students by name and utilizes the wide range of his 
students' abilities to enhance classroom discussion. His approach to 
teaching enriches health education on multiple levels that will prepare 
students for real-life situations in working with patients. Dr. 
Talley's impact on the University of South Dakota, its students and 
faculty, and on the entire State will be felt for generations to 
come.

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