Dr. Lawrence (Larry) Dorr, founder of the Dorr Institute For Arthritis Research And Education, is now retired from surgery. He remains active in research of the hip-spine relationship, and with lectures to the leading orthopedic meetings. He operated nearly 16000 hip and knee replacements during forty years, and loved taking care of each of his patients. He was recognized as an outstanding surgeon, and organized the leading surgical course, The Masters Series, to teach surgery to orthopedic surgeons. The Dorr bone types are known throughout the world. His APR hip system that he designed in the 1980s was used by surgeons for 25 years, and it extended his contribution to patients far beyond those he operated himself. He was a leader in his generation for surgery, research, and lecturing, and his generation was the most innovative and dynamic generation in orthopedics. People live into their elderly years with more comfort, more ambulatory, and more energy than ever before. That is the contribution made by Dr Dorr’s work in orthopedics and his generation. He trained eighty fellows in his forty years, and they honor him with the Dorr Fellows Society. They are his greatest contribution to orthopedic surgery, as they are leaders in their communities, and their countries.
Dr Dorr’s peers honored him many times during his career. In 1983 he assisted his mentor, Dr Chitranjan Ranawat, in founding the Knee Society, and he became the president of that society in the 1990s. In the early 1990s Dr Ranawat enlisted him again to found the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons. Its first meeting had 65 surgeons, and Dr Dorr showed the slides for the speakers who used the now old-fashioned slides in a carousel! He was later president of AAHKS also. After his selection into the Hip Society he became its president, and that gave him the distinction of being the first surgeon to be president of all three joint replacement societies. In 2006 the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons, the mother organization of orthopedics, honored Dr Dorr with its Humanitarian of the Year award for his founding of Operation Walk. In 2018 he received the Humanitarian of the year award from the AAHKS. He also received that award from the Iowa Orthopedic Society. Dr Dorr and his wife Marilyn established a chair in Hip and Knee surgery at the University of Iowa, and participated with John and Kim Callaghan in a chair for Sports Medicine at Iowa. He and Marilyn also founded the Dimensions program at Cornell College in Iowa for premed students, and those students who want to go into health care. Dr Dorr has been honored by his educational institutions also: He is in the Hall of Fame at his high school, Des Moines Roosevelt; Has received the outstanding Alumni Award from Cornell College; the Alumni Achievement award from the Iowa medical school; and the Alumni Achievement award from the University of Iowa.
Perhaps the greatest contribution, and the most significant, to Dr Dorr’s legacy is Operation Walk. It is an humanitarian organization that performs free hip and knee replacements for poor people in foreign countries. Operation Walk USA began in Los Angeles in 2003 with leadership by Jeri Ward and Mary Ellen Sieben and went national in 2009. It now is an organization with central offices at the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons. Operation Walk international has central governance by the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons with twenty chapters in the U.S., Canada and Ireland. In 2019 there have been 17000 patients operated by Operation Walk in countries of Central and South American countries, Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa. One of the most important contributions of these missions is the effect on the morale of the doctors, nurses, technicians, therapists, physician assistants and volunteers who participate. The love transferred from the patients, and the warmth of unconditional giving remind all of the romance of medicine, and why they chose a medical profession. In several countries there have been expressions of the ambassadorial contribution of Operation Walk as representatives of the United States. This organization will have longevity as a leading orthopedic charity. Churchill said it best: “We make a living by what we get; we make a life by what we give.” Those of us in Operation Walk know we will not change the world but we will change the world of each of the patients we touch.
In retirement Dr Dorr spends more time writing on his books. He has published two books which are on Amazon: ‘Die Once Live Twice‘ and ‘Die Once Live Forever‘, which are historical fiction which follows the progression of Medicine from being a trade to being a profession that truly helped people. Currently he is writing a fictional thriller, a nonfiction biography of an influential surgeon designer, and the story of Operation Walk. He truly enjoys the creativity of writing which replaces the creativity of surgery. It is a lesson for those who consider retirement – it is important to be able to flip from being an achiever to being an enjoyer. His greatest enjoyment is more time spent with his wife Marilyn, and with his friends playing golf.