Introducing
John Lee
Roberts, MD
President
GREATER LOUISVILLE MEDICAL SOCIETY
2016-2017
Janet Lynn Smith, MD
I
first met John when we were both 17 and
freshmen at Bellarmine College (not yet a
university). We were members of the Cardinal Section, an honors program for promising
students who attended core classes together,
traveled each spring on a cultural trip, and
met weekly to discuss literary works. The Cardinal Section was designed to build leaders,
and was certainly successful with John! It also
built romances and ours is just one of several enduring marriages
between Cardinal Section participants.
John is the first of four children born to Jack and “A” Roberts. He
grew up in the Pleasure Ridge Park suburb of Louisville. He was
educated in the Catholic school system, graduating from Bishop
David High School. The first of his family to attend college, he has
been an unending source of pride for his parents. His modest blue
collar background mandated that he work to help fund his education.
In high school, he worked in his uncle’s convenience store, and in
college he participated in the work-study program at Bellarmine,
helping to build the still-standing campus greenhouse. He worked
summers at Louisville Gas & Electric, and was an orderly at the nowclosed Pleasant Grove Hospital in Anchorage, an alcohol treatment
facility where he had his first experience in caring for patients.
When not in school, John could be found playing some sort of
sport. At various times he played Little League baseball, basketball,
football, and tennis. His football career ended in grade school, but
he still plays tennis. Baseball was and remains his favorite sport. One
summer during pediatric training, he was playing on two community
softball teams and coaching a women’s team. He doesn’t do things
half-way! He has had season tickets to Louisville Bats games since
the new stadium opened. John can often be found on a hot summer
evening sitting two rows back from first base, drinking a cold one,
and cheering on the team.
His other pastime as a youngster was fishing and boating at
Rough River, where the Roberts were one of the first families to
purchase lots in the early 1960’s after the reservoir was created by
the Tennessee Valley Authority. His parents still own their original
cabin and we have purchased one just around the corner, so the lake
has been our weekend escape for years. There, he introduced our
youngsters to the delights of the pontoon boat, jet ski, hiking and
exploring nature. John now also enjoys tending to his arbor and
garden, and just watching the boats go by on the lake.
During college, he considered a career as a forest ranger. After
some research in plant cell physiology, he began to entertain the
possibility of medical school. John says that he ultimately decided
to pursue medical school because I was doing it, but I think he was
discovering his own passion for medicine.
The first two years of medical school were the same grueling
ordeal for John that we all semi-fondly recall. During April of our
second year, we were taking an evening EKG course. We took a
break for dinner at the General Hospital cafeteria (a truly fine
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