Dr. T. F. Riggs and the Johns Hopkins connection: an early graduate medical experience in South Dakota

Theodore F. Riggs, MD was born to missionary parents in Dakota Territory in 1874. His early education was a mixture of a mission school with Indian children and more conventional elementary schools in eastern communities. He graduated from Beloit College, and in 1903 received his medical degree at Johns Hopkins. After training in surgery, he began his practice in Pierre, South Dakota in 1909. In 1919 he contacted friends in Baltimore, seeking assistance with the burgeoning practice. Help came in the form of a third year medical student, Richard TeLinde (who later became head of Gynecological Surgery at Hopkins). TeLinde was so impressed by his Pierre encounter that subsequently each year he would select a recent Hopkins graduate to go to Pierre and work with Dr Riggs at St. Mary's Hospital. The Pierre rotation became a regular option in the residency program of the Brady Urological Institute. The program continued through World War II, ending after the death of Dr Hugh Young and the retirement of Dr Riggs in the early 1950's. Forty-five residents or medical students had a part of their training with T. F. Riggs at St. Mary's Hospital. Twenty-seven were from Johns Hopkins, while others were local South Dakotans or individuals known to Dr. Riggs. Of the total group, seventeen became urologists, five surgeons, five internist, two otolaryngologists, two psychiatrists and one gynecologist (Richard TeLinde). Dr Riggs died in 1962. He said his greatest joy in life was the experience he had with those men who had been at St. Mary's Hospital over the years and the friendships that were formed.