Honoring a Life of Compassion and Care
Honoring a Life of Compassion and Care
Legacy can also take shape more suddenly— through loss, love and a community’ s determination to carry forward a physician’ s influence when it is needed most.
Dr. Robert Eilert and Dr. Lori Karol Endowed Chair in Musculoskeletal Research.
Dr. Eilert and his wife, Debra, committed the final funds needed to establish the chair, adding Lori Karol, MD, to its name to honor the renowned pediatric orthopedic leader and former division chief, who had advocated for the creation of an orthopedic research endowment and passed away in 2022.
A Chair Built on Shared Belief
What makes this chair especially powerful is how it came to life. It was built not by a single gift, but through a culture of shared belief. Orthopedic physicians, including Dr. Erickson, invested early in the Musculoskeletal Research Center, pooling part of their salaries and departmental gifts long before an endowed chair existed. Families whose lives were shaped by the work stepped forward as well, honoring clinicians who changed their children ' s futures. And fundraising by the Pediatric Orthopedics Courage Classic Bicycle Tour team, the Bony Express, contributed significantly, as well.
At the center of it all was Dr. Eilert’ s enduring philosophy:“ You should invest in things that you love, and you’ ll be a very happy person.” His colleagues heard him say it countless times. Today, that belief lives on through sustained support for clinician scientists, strengthened research infrastructure and discoveries yet to come. Dr. Eilert’ s legacy reflects decades of intentional investment by someone who helped define a specialty.
" Dr. Eilert ' s contributions to our research at Children ' s Colorado span many decades," said Klane White, MD, Chair of Pediatric Orthopedics. " He and his family ' s support of this chair cements his foundational legacy and advances our mission to build active and healthy lives for all children. For his leadership and generosity, we are incredibly grateful."
Michael Wachs, MD, devoted nearly three decades of his life to advancing pediatric transplantation at Children’ s Colorado. As Chief of Abdominal Transplant Surgery and Professor of Surgery, he helped build one of the nation’ s most successful pediatric transplant programs, including one of the largest pediatric living donor programs in the country( see story on pg. 8).
A gifted surgeon, Dr. Wachs performed hundreds of adult and pediatric liver and kidney transplants. Yet he believed his greatest contribution to his field was mentorship. He invested deeply in the next generation of surgeons, most notably his protégé and successor, Megan Adams, MD, ensuring the values and clinical rigor he championed would endure long beyond his own career.
Dr. Wachs passed away in 2025, leaving behind a body of work defined by compassion, excellence and belief in people. In response, families, colleagues, faculty and supporters came together to establish the Michael Wachs Pediatric Transplant Endowed Fund, a collective act of gratitude and hope in his memory.
Made possible through the advocacy of his sister Nancy’ s family, the Mitchells, among many others, the fund will support education, research, clinical care and family assistance for transplant patients for generations to come. It ensures that Dr. Wachs’ influence will continue, not only through the lifesaving procedures he performed, but through the trainees he taught, the families he supported and lives he changed forever.
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