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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