The experience is nearly as vivid for Dr. Theodore “Ted” Gasteyer II, MD, ’55 today as it was in 1954. He was standing beside a cadaver and across from Dean and Professor Rolf Syvertsen, MD, ’23 in Dartmouth Medical School’s anatomy lab. Gasteyer had just responded to his professor’s oral test questions, and in seconds, Syvertsen posed yet another, more pointed question: “Are you sure?”
“He had a sixth sense about students who were not absolutely, positively, 110% sure about what they were saying or doing,” Gasteyer recalls. “He looked at me through those little half-glasses perched on his nose – right in the eye – and repeated: ‘Are you sure?’”
As a first-year medical student, Gasteyer admits that he was 100% sure of nothing. But he understood the lesson that Syvertsen was conveying. Physicians have to make a lot of decisions, and if they’ve researched a problem well, they should be confident in those decisions.
“It was the kind of thing that if you were to latch on and take it to heart, you would carry it with you, and it would have a big impact on your career,” Gasteyer adds. “It certainly did for me.”
Between 1923 and 1960, hundreds of medical students knew Syvertsen as a professor of anatomy, administrator, dean, and perhaps most critically, their personal advocate and mentor. Known as “Sy’s Boys,” these young men were educated and trained as doctors before the advent of coeducation, and they still draw from a wellspring of stories that reveal the doctor’s gruff kindliness and his unconventional teaching methods, as well as his uncommon devotion to each and every student.
That legacy recently inspired Gasteyer and his classmate, Dr. John Moran, to each make generous gifts to the Rolf C. Syvertsen Memorial Fund. The endowed fund, established in 1985 by alumni donations, celebrates the life and legacy of its namesake. It provides more than $100,000 each year in financial aid to students in need. Additionally, 10% of the fund’s income supports the Syvertsen Scholars and Fellows Program, which honors fourth-year students who exemplify the values that Syvertsen stood for and seeks to perpetuate his enduring influence on the medical school’s cultural framework.
The 2014-15 Syvertsen Fellow, Fadzai Chinyengtere, PhD’13, MD’15, describes her award as a “godsend” that helped with her travel expenses for residency interviews.
“I am eternally grateful to our alumni for their gifts,” Chinyengtere says.
Ilya Bendich, MD,’15, who was named a Syvertsen Scholar for 2014-15, calls the award the “greatest honor of his medical school years.” He appreciates that the scholarship recognizes students’ academic and extracurricular achievements, as well their commitment to strengthening communities and making a positive difference in the world through their medical practices. Like Chinyengtere, Bendich’s financial award extended his opportunities for residency interviews.
“In a competitive specialty like orthopaedic surgery, I found that attending two more interviews made me feel significantly more confident that I would match successfully,” Bendich adds.
Dr. Syvertsen was a rigorous and uncompromising teacher, who modeled for students his twin passions for medicine and lifelong learning. He also cultivated a strong sense of community, good citizenship, and compassion for humanity – and in particular, for one’s patients. His influence on generations of doctors was profound and continues to inspire alumni, like Gasteyer and Moran, to support scholarships in his name, carrying on the Syvertsen legacy.
