ALUMNI PROFILE
Honoring Buck Zahradka’s Memory The Buck Zahradka Memorial Scholarship continues to aid medical students well after the Zahradka family created the fund in Buck’s memory. As his mother says, “As long as people remember you, you live.” By Jessica Sobolik
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Shirley Zahradka (center) with her family.
... His real strength is his straightforward, common-sense approach to the patient’s problems.
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It’s been 14 years since the tragic death of Buck Zahradka, MD ’98, but his mother Shirley still feels his presence in everyday occurrences. “We like to say he’s still with us,” she said. “Recently my grandson got married. Buck was his hero. I think Buck was there with us.” In March 1999, just 10 months after earning his medical degree, Buck was beaver hunting in Hillsboro, N.Dak., with anatomy graduate student Craig Cameron and Trevor Thompson, brother of Jody Thompson, MD ’97. Their boat motor failed, and the boat went over a small dam. All three men drowned. A tree was planted north of the UND School of Medicine and Health Sciences in honor of Buck and Craig. The Ohio buckeye “was chosen for its beauty and hardiness,” former Dean H. David Wilson wrote to Shirley in 2000. The tree flourishes today. “It blooms beautifully in the spring,” Shirley said.
NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2012
Career Path Among other factors, Buck was likely influenced in his decision to attend medical school by his older sister Sandra, who earned her medical degree from Joan C. Edwards School of Medicine at Marshall University in Huntington, W.Va. She is now a practicing dermatologist in Birmingham, Ala. “Buck and I went to her graduation,” Shirley said. “He and Sandy were two peas in a pod.” Sandra said he visited with her classmates and learned they had previously come from successful professions—engineering, law, nursing, and accounting, to name a few. “I’m sure he thought, ‘If they can do it, so can I,’” Sandra said. “They gave life to his dream.” Once accepted at UND, Buck completed his first and second years of medical school in Grand Forks, often bringing classmates to his mom’s house for lunch. He spent his third year on the Bismarck campus and his fourth year in Minot. His graduation was