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ALUMNI PROFILE<br />

Honoring Buck Zahradka’s Memory<br />

The Buck Zahradka Memorial Scholarship continues to aid medical<br />

students well after the Zahradka family created the fund in Buck’s<br />

memory. As his mother says, “As long as people remember you, you live.”<br />

By Jessica Sobolik<br />

Shirley Zahradka (center) with her family.<br />

“... His real strength is<br />

his straightforward,<br />

common-sense approach<br />

to the patient’s problems.<br />

”<br />

It’s been 14 years since the tragic death of<br />

Buck Zahradka, MD ’98, but his mother<br />

Shirley still feels his presence in everyday<br />

occurrences. “We like to say he’s still with<br />

us,” she said. “Recently my grandson got<br />

married. Buck was his hero. I think Buck<br />

was there with us.”<br />

In March 1999, just 10 months after<br />

earning his medical degree, Buck was<br />

beaver hunting in Hillsboro, N.Dak., with<br />

anatomy graduate student Craig Cameron<br />

and Trevor Thompson, brother of Jody<br />

Thompson, MD ’97. Their boat motor<br />

failed, and the boat went over a small dam.<br />

All three men drowned.<br />

A tree was planted north of the UND<br />

School of <strong>Medicine</strong> and Health Sciences in<br />

honor of Buck and Craig. The Ohio<br />

buckeye “was chosen for its beauty and<br />

hardiness,” former Dean H. David Wilson<br />

wrote to Shirley in 2000. The tree<br />

flourishes today. “It blooms beautifully in<br />

the spring,” Shirley said.<br />

Career Path<br />

Among other factors, Buck was likely<br />

influenced in his decision to attend<br />

medical school by his older sister Sandra,<br />

who earned her medical degree from Joan<br />

C. Edwards School of <strong>Medicine</strong> at Marshall<br />

University in Huntington, W.Va. She is<br />

now a practicing dermatologist in<br />

Birmingham, Ala. “Buck and I went to her<br />

graduation,” Shirley said. “He and Sandy<br />

were two peas in a pod.” Sandra said he<br />

visited with her classmates and learned<br />

they had previously come from successful<br />

professions—engineering, law, nursing,<br />

and accounting, to name a few. “I’m sure<br />

he thought, ‘If they can do it, so can I,’”<br />

Sandra said. “They gave life to his dream.”<br />

Once accepted at UND, Buck completed<br />

his first and second years of medical school<br />

in Grand Forks, often bringing classmates<br />

to his mom’s house for lunch. He spent his<br />

third year on the Bismarck campus and his<br />

fourth year in Minot. His graduation was<br />

26 NORTH DAKOTA MEDICINE Holiday 2012

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