In Remembrance
Harold E. Kleinert, MD (1921-2013)
A
s the story is told, and there are
many told, Harold Kleinert was
born in a chicken coop on the
family ranch outside Sunburst, Montana,
not far south of the Canadian border. His
studies led him east, through Ann Arbor,
Philadelphia, and Detroit, with full intention of returning to his home state to practice general surgery. There is a second,
well-told tale of a chance encounter and a
beer shared in a hotel bar, and the detour
to Louisville with his young family for just
another year of general hospital surgery,
before going home.
Of course, as we now know, Louisville
and Southern Indiana became his new and
permanent home. Between those early
days as a young attending in the Department of
Surgery, and his burial at
Cave Hill on the day he
would have been 92 this
past October, Harold was
a colorful, distinguished
figure in the Louisville
medical community. It
can conservatively be stated that Harold,
and the talented team of colleagues he
surrounded himself with, transformed the
practice of hand and microsurgery. His
pioneering developments in surgical instruments and techniques modernized the
treatment of hand injuries. The private
practice he established drew patients who
injured their hands on nearby farms and in