Dr. Geoffrey Hespe awarded Rotary Scholarship
The Rotary Club of Park Ridge presented Dr. Geoffrey Hespe with the prestigious Dr. Stewart Alexander Scholarship during an award ceremony at the River Vale Country Club on June 1.
Hespe grew up in Park Ridge and attended Park Ridge High School. He graduated cum laude with departmental honors from the University of Richmond with a bachelor of science degree in biology and a minor in medical humanities. Following college, Hespe worked as an administrative assistant at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. This experience had an enormous impact on his life and motivated him to pursue a career in medicine. He attended Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and was chosen to participate in the student scholars program. This allowed him to pursue basic science research as a graduate research fellow at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he investigated lymphedema. Hespe published numerous peer-reviewed papers and book chapters on his research and presented his work at several national conferences. Hespe graduated with distinction in research from Rutgers-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School.
Hespe will conduct his residency in plastic surgery at the University of Michigan. He would like to pursue a fellowship in reconstructive microsurgery and a career in academic medicine, hopefully serving the community in which he grew up.
Hespe's award is named for Dr. Stewart Alexander, who was born and raised in Park Ridge. He returned to live and open his medical practice there after his remarkable service on Dwight Eisenhower's staff during World War II. In 1943, when military personnel were accidentally exposed to mustard gas during the bombardment of the Italian town of Bari, Alexander confirmed the exposure. Although initially discouraged, he persisted and thereby saved more than 85 percent of the victims. Further, his research on the bioligical effects of mustard gas is credited with advancing cancer chemotherapy by several years.
Alexander was a member of the Park Ridge Rotary Club for 50 years prior to his death on Dec. 6, 1991. He was director of medicine at Bergen Pines, president of the Bergen County Medical Society and the first recipient of the Laureate Award (New Jersey Chapter of the American College of Physicians). He founded a program at Pascack Valley Hospital designed to orient potential medical students to the field. The Park Ridge Rotary Club awards this scholarship in his name to students from the Pascack Valley who have been through this program and are finishing medical school.