Dr. James E. Wenzl

Dr. James E. Wenzl, a pediatric nephrologist who saved the lives of hundreds of children at The Children's Hospital in Oklahoma City and elsewhere, died Thursday, Jan. 9, after a five year battle with cancer. He was 78. In a career spanning more than half a century, he treated thousands of patients, wrote medical textbooks and scientific papers, trained, taught and mentored many other physicians at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, and did research that deepened the knowledge-base of pediatric nephrology worldwide. He worked on kidney transplants when the procedure was new, and took part in more than 240 transplant operations, starting in 1973, when he helped establish the kidney transplant program at Oklahoma Children's Memorial Hospital. Pediatric nephrologists are rare but crucial to any child suffering from kidney disease. Wenzl worked seven-day weeks and established a pediatric nephrology program in Oklahoma that had not existed before. His work drew patients also from Kansas, Texas and Arkansas. He said the relentless attention he gave to patient care stemmed from his Catholic faith. "We are here to do good--nothing else matters as much as that." Reassuring, witty, and relentlessly upbeat, he spent many hours of his work days visiting patients and their families, or talking with them by phone from home, consoling and coaching them about how to endure their illnesses. At his retirement gathering at the University, medical officials described how he had saved all those children, some of whom attended that gathering, and stood up to honor him. He was born on a farm outside Greenleaf, Kansas, the son of Emmet and Mary Wenzl. He was a star half-miler on the Greenleaf High School track and field team. A series of serious injuries incurred while playing high school football led indirectly to his medical career. He broke his nose, and a tibia in one of his legs, and dislocated his shoulder, early in the football season of his junior year. He came back the next year as the starting halfback, but broke every long bone in one foot on the second play of the first game of his senior year. "I spent so much time talking to doctors in those two years that I became intrigued by the work," he later said. He earned his medical degree at Creighton University in Omaha in 1959. He did his residency in pediatrics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., from 1960 to 1963. He was inducted into the U.S. Air Force as a captain in 1963 and served two years as a pediatrician at Sheppard Air Force Base outside Wichita Falls, Texas. He fell in love with the art and nature of the southwest United States there. He resumed his residency in pediatric nephrology at the Mayo Clinic from 1965 to 1967. He was appointed assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City in August 1967, and served in that role until July 1971. He served as associate professor of pediatrics there from 1971 to 1975, then as professor of pediatrics from 1975 to 2002. He served as interim chairman of the Department of Pediatrics from 1976 to 1977; and again from 1988 to 2002. He was the acting chief of pediatric service from 1975 to 1977, and the chief of pediatric nephrology service at Children's Memorial Hospital from 1973 to 2002. He gave extensively to charities. He took part in the emergency treatment of victims injured in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of the Murrah federal building. Never fond of staff meetings, he semi-retired in 2002, but continued to treat patients in Oklahoma City and in Tulsa until 2008. "I just want to treat sick kids," he said. He commuted weekly to the Tulsa Clinic so that patients there would not have to travel for treatment to Oklahoma City. He retired from that work in 2008 only because he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and was having trouble walking. He was a long-time member of Epiphany of the Lord Catholic Church, and sang in the church's traditional choir until recently. He was a zealous Oklahoma University sports fan, attending many home and away games. Starting in 1965, he and his family traveled yearly to Red River, N.M., where he bought a second home in 1996. He collected western American and Native American art, wood carvings and rugs. He hiked and fished. With wife Carol, he was grateful for their many friends in Oklahoma, Kansas and New Mexico. For more than three decades, he made his garden so productive that the family seldom ate any vegetable not grown in his back yard. He leaves his wife of 56 years, Carol O'Sullivan Wenzl; and four children: Sandi and Mike McDermott, of Arlington, Texas, Kathy and Chris McGehee, Arlington, Texas, Stephen and Dawn Wenzl, Albuquerque, N.M., and Anne and Craig Carter, Centennial, Colorado. He leaves 11 grand-children: Sean and his wife, Brady, Christopher, and his wife, Jessica, and Colleen McDermott; Michael, Kevin and Kaitlin McGehee; Jenna and Cindy Wenzl; Kristin, Cole and Matthew Carter. He leaves two great-grandchildren: Emery and Graham McDermott. He also leaves a sister, Joan Uhlik, and her husband Matt Uhlik and a sister-in-law, Rosemary Wenzl, all of Greenleaf, Kan. His parents and his brother, Gene Wenzl, of Greenleaf, Kan., preceded him in death. The family is grateful to Dr. Keefer, his nurse Linda, the Mercy El Reno Home Care, especially Chris, and the entire Mercy Hospice team, particularly Dolores, for all their care and compassion for Jim. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to Mercy Hospice or Birth Choice. There will be a prayer service 7 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17 and the Mass of Christian Burial 10 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 18, both liturgies will be held at Epiphany of the Lord Catholic Church, 7336 W. Britton Road, Oklahoma City.