Daniel Van Durme, M.D., Memorial Scholarship Fund

As we approach the one-year anniversary of the accident that claimed the life of an iconic Florida State University College of Medicine leader, it’s a most-fitting time to make the Daniel Van Durme, M.D., Memorial Scholarship Fund the focal point of our 2024 Great Give campaign.

Described by Interim Dean Alma Littles, M.D., as a “true servant leader,” Van Durme was the college’s senior associate dean when he passed on May 30, 2023, but his reach was far greater than a single title could encompass. Among his many contributions in nearly 20 years of service since leaving the University of South Florida, he chaired the Department of Family Medicine and Rural Health, led numerous international trips as advisor for Students Interested in Global Health, mentored hundreds of students as an award-winning educator, founded and served as faculty advisor of the FSU Chapman Chapter of the Gold Humanism Honor Society and served as the college’s chief medical officer.

“We will be forever grateful for his steady leadership, wise counsel and passion for the campus community,” said Kyle Clark, FSU senior vice president for finance and administration. They worked closely together to guide and execute the university’s protocols throughout the height of the COVID pandemic and in the development and 2019 opening of FSU PrimaryHealth, which provides services to southwest Tallahassee’s designated medical desert.

“That [PrimaryHealth] is his legacy,” said Jenni Puhr, program director for the Florida Medical Practice Plan. “It is everything he stood for. The practice is making a difference in the vast hole that is health equity for that community and for Tallahassee.”

Fittingly, his vision for and leadership of PrimaryHealth will be permanently recognized later in the spring when it is re-named the Daniel J. Van Durme, M.D., FSU PrimaryHealth Building.

“Dan Van Durme is a paragon of our mission and vision in her personal investment in the College of Medicine and this clinic, the embodiment of the kind of physicians we are educating, training and producing,” said close friend and Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Admissions Rob Campbell, M.D.

Dr. Van Durme legacy extends well beyond bricks and mortar, and this memorial scholarship fund will ensure that his ideals will live on through future physicians providing respectful, patient-centered care that is responsive to community needs, with a special focus on underserved communities, including minorities, the elderly and rural residents.

We would be honored if you chose to partner with us as we assist those medical students who aspire to the same ideals as Dr. Van Durme by contributing to the Memorial Scholarship Fund in his honor. By doing so, you will help ease the financial burden of medical education for future compassionate physicians, delivering the highest quality patient-centered medicine to communities of greatest need.