HONORING A MENTOR

When Dr. Kay Kramer, ’84, decided to support her alma mater, the Medical College of Georgia, she not only honored a role model, but also learned along the way the smartest way for her to give back. Kramer has given over $100,000 to the Margaret DeVore, M.D., Professorship in Anesthesiology through a planned gift using her IRA Required Minimum Distribution.
After learning about how valuable professorships are in attracting quality academicians and professors, Kramer said she was more than happy to contribute. She hopes her gift of assets will inspire others to review their assets to make additional contributions and ultimately grow the professorship to an endowed chair.

“We are so grateful to Dr. Kramer for her willingness to give generously in honor of her mentor and an admirable and longtime faculty member, Dr. Margaret DeVore,” says Dr. Steffen Meiler, chair of the Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine. “Dr. Kramer is making a key difference in ensuring our anesthesiology residents receive the best training possible.”

Now retired, Kramer got her start in medicine working at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta as a ward clerk and nurse’s aide to pay for her last years at college in the mid-1970s. Originally a German major, Kramer realized the operating room was where she wanted to be from working nights and watching the OR technicians. After graduating with her bachelor’s degree, she was accepted into a nine-month program at Piedmont Hospital where she received on-the-job surgical and technology training and certification.

“I wanted to do what the surgeons were doing,” said Kramer. “I wanted to know what they know, so I just started taking my pre-med courses at night. It took me awhile. I took one course a quarter down at Georgia State.”

Kramer went on to graduate from the Medical College of Georgia in 1984 and to complete her internship in 1985 and her residency in anesthesiology in 1988, both at MCG. In those days, there were few female leaders in the field, but it was during those years that Kramer got to work with anesthesiology attending Dr. Margaret DeVore.

For nearly 30 years, DeVore helped students and residents progress through medical school and residency. She received the Distinguished Faculty Award for her contributions to the School of Medicine in 1978 and was named MCG’s first associate dean of students the very next year. She also chaired the department’s Residency Education Committee and received the department’s first Resident’s Choice Award in 1989, which was thereafter named in her honor.

“It was just wonderful to have someone like [DeVore] as a mentor and somebody to look up to,” Kramer said. “She was then in her early 50s, so that meant she had gone to medical school at a time when there weren’t a lot of women in the field.”

DeVore, who retired as a beloved anesthesiology professor emerita and MCG associate dean of students emerita, passed away in 2016.

Dr. Meiler was influential in Kramer’s decision to give so generously to the Margaret DeVore, M.D., Professorship in Anesthesiology, but it was under the advisement of her financial planner to use funds from her IRA distributions to make the gift. Not only will Kramer’s gift honor her mentor, Dr. DeVore, and support her alma mater, but by using her IRA distributions, she will see the impact of the gift in her lifetime while also saving on taxes.

There are many ways to leave a legacy at MCG whether you want to use a planned gift to create an endowment to honor a mentor or someone who influenced you, or like Dr. Kramer, by contributing to an existing fund. The planned giving team is available to help you and your advisors explore what your best options are for supporting MCG. Please call 706-721-4001 or email philanthropy@augusta.edu for more information.