1996 Chapter Laureate Award
The Laureate Award honors those Fellows of the American College of Physicians in Indiana who have demonstrated by their example and conduct an abiding commitment to excellence in medical care, education or research, and service to the community and the American College of Physicians. This award is the most prestigious honor bestowed to a chapter member at the local level.
Awards are made at the annual regional meeting of the Indiana Chapter by vote of the Chapter Council. Potential awardees may be nominated by any member of the Indiana Chapter.
It is expected that awardees will be senior physicians, that is, Fellows for at least 15 to 20 years, with a long history of excellence and peer approval in the specialty of internal medicine.
It is with distinct please that the Indiana Chapter honors Jean Creek with its 1996 Chapter Laureate Award. Jean is a long-standing and loyal supporter of the College; he has rendered distinguished service and has upheld the high ideals and professional standards for which the American College of Physicians is known.
Dr. Creek is a Hoosier native. He was born and raised in Evansville and received both his undergraduate and medical degrees from Indiana University. After finishing a rotating internship at IU, he served for two years in the US Army, initially with the pediatric service at Fort Devon, then with the internal medicine service at the American Hospital of Paris.
After completing his army service in 1955, Jean returned to Bloomington and established a very successful family medicine practice which he continued for 14 years. During part of that time, he served as a student health service and athletic physician for the university. Later, between 1963 and 1965, Jean served as chief of medicine, and then chief of staff, at Bloomington Hospital.
In 1966, desiring to advance his medical skills and knowledge, he pursued a clinical cardiology fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania. In 1969, at the age of 41, he began internal medicine residency training at IU and earned certification by the American Board of Internal Medicine in 1971.
Immediately after completing his internal medicine training, he became active in medical education at the Bloomington Campus of the IU School of Medicine. Jean volunteered to participate in the Medical Sciences Program, teaching Introduction to Medicine to sophomore medical students, at which we are told, he excelled. In 1976, he took over as Director for the Introduction to Medicine course and at the same time became Director of Medical Education for Bloomington Hospital. His untiring efforts to improve the standards of medical practice in Bloomington through continuing medical education activities, scheduling weekly meetings with guest speakers for students and staff, have been frequently praised by many grateful students and colleagues.
Jean also took steps to update his own education. In 1979, he spent six months as a visiting fellow in the Rheumatology department at Hammersmith Hospital in London. Never content to accept the status quo, he has twice voluntarily recertified in internal medicine. In addition, Jean often makes the trip from Bloomington to attend medicine department grand rounds on Wednesday mornings.
He has served on the busy and time-consuming IUSOM Admissions Committee since 1977 and on the Library and Education Committee since 1980. Jean has also served on the Advisory Board of the Arthritis Foundation of Indiana since 1984. In 1994, he received the Otis R. Bowen Distinguished Leadership Award.
While remaining active in medical education, Jean initiated the first multidisciplinary internal medicine group in southern Indiana and successfully recruited an outstanding partnership of internists . This group has enhanced the teaching program for the Bloomington campus of the School of Medicine and raised the standards of medical practice in southern Indiana.
His colleague, pathologist Anthony Pizzo, has said, "I can think of no other member of our professional staff who has done more for medicine in our community than Dr. Jean Creek."
Dr. Creek has been an active supporter of ACP activities, coming to our annual Chapter Meeting nearly every year, participating in some of these to help introduce speakers.
In summary, Dr. Creek clearly serves as a model for us, his colleagues, and, on behalf of all of you, I am pleased to present him with this award.