Charles Rockwood was the Abe Lincoln of Orthopaedics.
*Like Abe, he always came off as a common man, never exalting himself above others. He
admonished others to humility: we were a bunch of “hot shot” ABC traveling fellows – he took
us all out one night and said, “look up at stars and you’ll realize how small you really are.” When
the Father of American Shoulder Surgery stated at a meeting of the Academy that all “rotator
cuff tears were reparable,” Charlie came next to podium and admitted, “there are quite a few cuff
tears that I can’t repair.” As a result, he inspired so many of us to be our best yet our most
humble and honest selves as we strive to serve our patients.
*Like Abe he was a unionist; at a time when there were specialist separatists who wanted to
splinter from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, as AAOS president, he strove to
keep the orthopaedic family together. When he gave his presidential address, he invited his wife
Patsy and their nine children on the stage to emphasize the importance of family togetherness.
*Like Abe he was a teacher, selflessly sharing his hard-won knowledge through student
clerkships, residency, fellowships, texts, and courses – touching directly or indirectly every
orthopaedic surgeon around the world.
*Like Abe he had a great sense of humor. Lincoln was the first United States president to make
jokes and laughter tools of the office; no other occupant of the White House has since matched
his embrace of the jocular. At Charlie’s first board meeting on becoming President of AAOS, he
broke the ice by wearing a cap with two divergent bills bearing the inscription, “I’m their leader,
which way did they go?” Like Lincoln some of his jokes were ever so slightly off-color.
Sometime I’ll tell you his story of the lineman who got bit in a special part of his anatomy by a
rattlesnake.
I miss him, as I know you all do. He was a friend, an enabler, and a guide for so many of us.
Charles, thanks for everything.
