02/24/2023    Joshua Gerbert, DPM, MS

The Passing of Leonard A. Levy, DPM, MPH (Tilden Sokoloff, MD, DPM)

Leonard was a true visionary for the future of our
profession. When he became the Academic Dean of the
California College of Podiatric in in the early
1970s he immediately began to lay a plan for our
profession that would equate us with the education
and training of MD and Osteopathic medicine. I was
one of the young fortunate residents at Highland
Alameda County General Hospital in Oakland,
California, the main trauma teaching center in the
area.

As I continued my training both at that facility
and the Podiatry Hospital at the California College
of Podiatric Medicine, Leonard proposed a Masters
program in medical education. His belief was that
our profession needed to not only train well
qualified podiatric residents but to give them the
necessary tools to hopefully become teachers in our
podiatric medical colleges.

I personally had plans to enter practice in Texas
after residency, however after many lengthy
discussions with Leonard, he convinced me to at
least try my ability to become a full-time teacher
within the Department of Podiatric Surgery at the
California College of Podiatric Medicine. He told
me and my wife that we were the new frontier of
podiatric medical education and that if I did not
like it after one year he would understand and he
would understand me going to Texas.

Needless to say, during that one year he provided
me with incredible support and much to my surprise
I totally loved fulltime academics. He encouraged
me to fight for the need for Board Certification in
Surgery for our profession and I can recall sharing
a hotel room at an annual meeting of the APMA in
which this matter was going to be discussed. He
had me and several other former residents pass out
notices to all members encouraging them to vote for
the certification board.

The only problem I has was sharing the room with
Leonard was that his snoring kept me up the entire
night; however the discussions we had really helped
me decide that academic medicine was for me. He
also firmly believed that to be an effective
teacher in surgery that it was important that I
maintained my skills developed during my residency
program; therefore he created a faculty clinical
practice plan which allowed myself, Gene Spector,
and Joel Clark also former residents to obtain a
practice location across from UCSF medical center
in San Francisco in which we could see private
patients and have podiatric medical students rotate
through the practice more in an observable role.

This type of practice continued for many years
involving us to participate in providing
instruction to UCSF residents in medicine and the
emergency department. Leonard's philosophy was
futuristic and sound and opened the doors to many
medical institutions in the San Francisco Bay Area.
It culminated many years later where our clinical
practice was asked to relocate to St. Medical
Center in San Francisco which is a teaching
hospital which included postgraduate programs of
internal medical residency, orthopedic residency
and podiatric 3 year surgical residency and the
changing of the hospital by-laws to make podiatric
surgery its own department equal to that of all
other departments with an equal vote on all
matters.

I truly believe that Leonard accomplished his long
term primary goal of changing the way podiatric
medical education is presently created that
benefits all podiatric physicians. As a resident
who benefited from his visions, I will always be
grateful to mentoring. May you rest in peace and
your legacy will live on forever.

Joshua Gerbert, DPM, MS

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02/28/2023    Chet Evans, DPM

The Passing of Leonard A. Levy, DPM, MPH (Tilden Sokoloff, MD, DPM)

Leonard's passing leaves a large vacancy in my
heart and in the profession that he loved. I first
got to know him when he was dean at Des Moines, and
I had become dean at Barry. He was a great mentor
to me and always picked up the phone when I called,
regardless how petty the issue. He was a
progressive advocate for podiatric medicine, always
stressing the primary care aspects of our
profession and our roles therein. He was involved
in the late '80s and early '90s in the evolution of
the podiatric primary care residency concept that
was funded by the government for many years. Many
people are not aware that he was instrumental in
developing the board certification process for
podiatric public health.

Though the board did not last long, it was key to
getting the profession recognized through the
Podiatric Health Section of the APHA, for which he
served as section chair. I followed in his
footsteps, and he made the job easier for having
already forged the path ahead. His inspiration was
such that I would develop an MPH program at every
institution I ever worked at, including a dual
degree capability for Barry podiatry students.

Not a secret, Len and I shared a love for oriental
food, and frequently we would hold our meetings
over lunch at a local Chinese establishment. Once,
at an international podiatric meeting in
Gothenburg, Sweden, a colleague suffered a heart
attack and was admitted to the local hospital. My
wife and I and Leonard went to visit him and as we
were walking out the door, the first thing on
Leonard's mind was finding a Chinese restaurant for
dinner. Did we find one in Sweden? You bet we did!

Leonard was also a strong advocate for
multidisciplinary health and medical education. I
believe this was founded in his involvement with
osteopathic medicine, and him having played vital
roles beyond podiatric medical education. And he
always argued for the value of the DPM degree, and
that it was as valuable as the MD, or DO in the
medical education arena. He was always my role
model and paved the way in that regard, leading me
to follow in his footsteps again as a VP at an
osteopathic medical health science center
responsible for DO, PharmD, Allied Health and
ultimately dental medical education. He made it
easy for the rest of us.

His presence, demeanor and font of knowledge will
be sorely missed. He was truly an iconic member of
our profession and was loved by many. I wish his
family condolences and I know that if there is a
Chinese restaurant in Elysium, he is there!

Chet Evans, DPM, Winter Garden, FL