In Memory of our Founder Robert R. Odén, MD
“Bob Odén loved the Roaring Fork Valley and made it a better place to live for all of us. He was a pioneer in making skiing a safer sport. He was fun to work with as he was always coming up with a better way to solve a difficult problem in fracture care, or a novel idea on a new surgical tool,” says Dr. Robert Derkash.
“Bob Odén was an institution in our community. He was the first orthopaedist on the Western Slope and my mentor. He would actually make things happen, not just talk about them,” says Dr. Mark Purnell.
Please join us in keeping Bob’s dream alive by contributing to the Aspen Sports Medicine Foundation’s Robert R. Odén, MD Endowment Fund. To make a donation or for more information please contact the Aspen Sports Medicine Foundation at (970) 920-4151.
Dr. Robert R. Odén’s mantra as an Orthopaedist was to bring injured people “back to as close a shape as God created them in the first place.” From that concise goal, and a desire to “love where you live and do what you love,” he embarked on a career spanning 5 decades. He was instrumental in opening the doors of four treatment centers, building in our Valley the excellent reputation for Orthopaedic care we provide today. When Dr. Odén saw a great need for on-slope medical care and off-slope education for US Ski Team athletes, he trained a team of doctors to oversee their continued care. Dr. Odén’s foresight regarding the value of head protection is the reason so many skiers today wear helmets. He was “larger than life,” according to Karen Eberhardt, BSN, who worked alongside Dr. Odén for many years. “Out-of-town patients who he treated on the slope begged him to be their surgeon.”
Dr. Odén’s path to Aspen began in the Midwest. He was born on December 2, 1922 in Chicago. He attended the University of Illinois, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1943. After college, he spent 2 years playing football for the Chicago Bears and worked as an instructor at the Arthur Murray Dance Studio. In 1947, he completed his medical degree at Northwestern University School of Medicine. He started his Orthopaedic residency in 1949 at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital but was drafted into the US Air Force to serve with a MASH unit during the Korean War in 1951. Upon returning from the war in 1953, he completed his residency at the Shriners Hospital in 1954.
When he moved to Aspen in 1957, he established the first Orthopaedic practice on Colorado’s Western Slope. Noted as the first board-certified Orthopaedist in a major US ski area, he excelled as a leader in Orthopaedic sports medicine. Sports medicine education for physicians, athletes, and the community was of paramount importance to Dr. Odén. He was influential in establishing the Academy’s Winter Sports Medicine Programs in Snowmass and the Rocky Mountain Trauma Association in Aspen. In the 1970s, he established the Rocky Mountain Sports Medicine Fellowship, known today as the Aspen Sports Medicine Foundation (ASMF). Geared for physicians who seek a year of specialized research after residency, ASMF provides sound sports medicine research and education by sponsoring a fellowship and training residents and medical students from all around the world each year. Staying true to Dr. Odén’s mission, the ASMF also bridges the gap between physicians and the community by providing our extremely active local community with educational opportunities in sports injury prevention and care.
Communities on Colorado’s Western Slope have greatly benefitted from Dr. Odén’s commitment to advancing medical care and education. In addition to founding his practice in Aspen, he started an on-slope clinic in Snowmass Village. In 1962, he was asked by Vail Associates to form a clinic similar to the Aspen and Snowmass Village practices to serve Vail’s skiers. He was integral in raising money to build the Aspen Valley Hospital, Vail Clinic, and Vail Valley Hospital. For 18 years, he volunteered his time to the Aspen Valley Hospital Board of Directors and Board of Trustees. During this period, he founded the Aspen Valley Medical Foundation and the EMT Program of Colorado.
The US Olympic Committee took note of Dr. Odén’s expertise in ski-related injuries and recruited him to be the US Ski Team physician for the Olympic Games in Squaw Valley in 1960. Recognizing the need for continued care for the US Ski Team, Dr. Odén trained a pool of physicians to travel with the team and served as their Chief Orthopedic Surgeon from 1967-1980. He was a medical advisor to the US Olympic Committee, a board member of the US Ski Team, US Representative to the Federation of International Skiing (FIS) Medical Committee, and an organizer for the many FIS Aspen World Cup programs. Dr. Odén has promoted safety on racecourses at the FIS and US Ski Association (USSA) levels, including the required use of certified helmets for downhill racing. During his time in practice, he was Chief of Medical Services for every World Cup event as well as many North American Cup ski races and other downhill races held in Aspen. In this role, he sought to provide not only for the medical needs but also the education of team members beyond their ski careers.
Dr. Odén has been lauded for his contribution to sports medicine by numerous organizations including the USSA, with the Julius Blegen Award in 1985; the Rocky Mountain Division, with the Halstead Trophy in 1986; by the town of Aspen, with induction into the Aspen Hall of Fame in 1995; the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine (AOSSM)—a group he joined in 1973, 1 year after it was founded—with the Sports Medicine Doctor of the Year award in 1998 and the AOSSM Hall of Fame in 2004; and induction into the US National Ski Hall of Fame and Colorado Ski Hall of Fame in 2002, an honor that recognized his extensive contributions to Orthopaedic sports medicine and his work fostering the US Ski Team doctors’ pool. He has also been a member of the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, the Western Orthopaedic Association, and the Association of Bone and Joint Surgeons.
His legacy as a forerunner in modern Orthopaedic sports medicine and education is coupled with his great humility. His achievements came wholly out of a love for medicine and for the opportunity to restore people back to full activity. Dr. Odén has said, "That's exactly what I did. I loved every moment of it. It was a great pleasure to practice Orthopaedics and help people.”
Nancy Odén honored for 30-year contribution to music festival
by Dorothy M. Atkins, Special to the Aspen Daily News
Monday, August 23, 2010
The Aspen Music Festival’s 2010 season ended Sunday with the dissonance and dramatic percussion of Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, marking with a flourish the last day of one of the festival’s longest-serving volunteers.
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