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Alumni Profile
Alumni Profile: The Schmitt Family, M.D.s
By Sandra Bearden
medicine. “But a lot of his golfing buddies were
doctors, and several took an interest in my future
career,” Kim says. “One of them gave me discarded
medical journals to read when I was only 12 or
13. I didn’t know what the heck I was looking at,
but the gesture was encouraging. Another friend
of my dad’s arranged for me to go into an operating
room to observe surgery when I was in high
school. That was a great experience for me.”
“My parents were
great believers in
education as a key to
preparation for life.”
— Kim Schmitt
Kim and Lee Schmitt.
If Kim Schmitt had chosen tap-dancing, would her younger
brothers have followed in her footsteps as fledgling Fred Astaires?
The world will never know. Kim opted for a medical career,
and that influenced brothers Adam and Lee Schmitt to become
physicians, too. All three are graduates of the University of
Alabama in Tuscaloosa and the UASOM. All three—Kim (’81),
Adam (’90), and Lee (’90)—completed residencies at University
Hospital. And all three practice medicine in the Birmingham area.
There the similarities end. They’re siblings, but not clones.
Kim Schmitt, M.D., practices otolaryngology as well as head and
neck surgery at Medical Center East. Adam Schmitt, M.D., is an
emergency physician at Shelby County Medical Center. And Lee
Schmitt, M.D., is a general surgeon at Medical Center East.
Although the three all chose medical careers, medicine is a
family business only in their generation. As the eldest, Kim led
the other two in that direction.
“As far back as I can remember, I wanted either to be a doctor
or a tap-dancer,” she laughs. “My parents [Vernon Neil Schmitt
of Leeds and the late Jean Schmitt] were great believers in education
as a key to preparation for life. So the tap-dancing idea didn’t
go over very well.
“I knew I was going to have a career, even though I was born
in 1955, when women didn’t prepare for careers. But my mother
was forward-thinking in this regard. And it happened that my
pediatrician was Dr. Vera Stewart. So I had a role model, and in
my early years I thought all doctors were female.”
The Schmitts’ father, who went to college on the GI Bill while
his wife worked to help support the family, practiced law, not
Kim’s enthusiasm for medicine caught hold
with Adam, the middle child, and Lee, the
youngest, both several years younger than she. By
the time they were ready to start thinking of
careers, she was enrolled at the UASOM.
“I think I deliberately tried to influence Adam,” she says. “Why
one does this, I don’t know. But I really was enthralled with medicine
and thought Adam would be a good doctor. I didn’t try so
hard to influence Lee. I thought he had his mind set on law.”
He did. “I majored in English and was planning to enter law
school,” says Lee Schmitt. “But I used to visit Kim’s Southside
apartment when she was in med school, look at her books, and
learn about her work. Somewhere along the way, I switched to premed,
took the required science courses, and entered the UASOM.”
In deciding on a specialty, Lee wanted to “do something that
would permit me to work with my hands,” and completed a residency
in general surgery at UASOM. Although he still does general
surgery, much of his practice in the past year has been in
laparoscopic weight-loss surgery.
Although she also has a clinical practice, Kim Schmitt became
interested in head and neck surgery during her surgical residency,
and also does a good deal of nasal and sinus surgery. “It’s delicate
surgery, and having small hands helps,” she says.
Adam Schmitt, like most emergency-department physicians,
keeps a frenetic pace and contributes interesting ED experiences
to the conversations at family get-togethers. “But there’s less shop
talk than you might think,” Lee comments.
While his children chose medicine, Vernon Schmitt may still
have an attorney in the family. Lee’s son Payton is still too young
to decide, but Kim’s 16-year-old daughter, Alexandra, an honor
student at Altamont School, has set her sights on law school.
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