Today, we remember Harold E. Kleinert and the remarkable, memorable stories of his life, from his birth on a Montana homestead ranch to his arrival as a young surgeon in Kentucky to becoming an admired and world renown hand surgeon.
His hard work, long days and late nights were legendary. His quest for proper, speedy and efficient treatment of hand injuries and medical conditions changed the outcome for so many patients who received his deliberate and unhurried focus no matter their wealth or class. The Christine M. Kleinert Fellowship (which became the CMKI) became a premier hand surgery training program, drawing fellows from all 50 states and 55 countries. To the medical community of Louisville and his surgical partners, his work as a physician, a healer, and instructor will remain a benchmark of excellence.
Though Harold was a complicated puzzle, he still presented as a simple man. Along with singular intelligence, he was endowed with many attributes: endearing innocence, tolerance, competitiveness, generosity, precision, confidence and a dogged determination to preserve through the challenges of his life and practice. His foresight was correct more often than not. A man of physical strength, he was utterly gentle and kind, quick-witted, playful, and so irreverent.
Family, friends, colleagues, and patients are often eager to tell their own HEK stories, of which there are many. We invite you to share yours with his family who on this anniversary of his death still mourns his absence in our lives.
Sharon, Harold, Amil, Chrissy, Jim, Jeannie and Louisa.
Send your story or your contact information to HEKstory@gmail.com
