In Memoriam: Don S. Schalch, MD

Professor Emeritus Don S. Schalch, MD, died on April 11, 2025, in Beverly, Massachusetts, at the age of 95. He was the former chief of what was then the Endocrine Section in the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health’s (SMPH) Department of Medicine, as well as a beloved student mentor and dedicated volunteer.

In 1982, Schalch joined the department as Endocrine Section chief, a role he held until 1990. For many years after his formal retirement in 1999, he continued to serve as a part-time faculty member and medical director for MEDiC, the network of free clinics led by UW–Madison health professions students.

Schalch earned his medical degree at the University of Cincinnati Medical School and completed his internal medicine residency and endocrinology fellowship at the University of Rochester in New York. He held faculty positions there and at the University of Colorado before coming to Wisconsin.

His research sought to understand how a protein, insulin-like growth factor, regulated growth hormones in the body. When microbiology was still in its infancy, he invented a way to isolate, purify, and identify the protein so it could be studied.

“Don deeply believed that medicine was a noble and selfless profession, and he lived those values,” reflects Yoram Shenker, MD, emeritus professor in the Department of Medicine’s Division of Endocrinology, Metabolism, and Diabetes.

In addition to serving as medical director and an attending physician for MEDiC, Schalch volunteered for the Benevolent Specialists Project Free Clinic and led students on medical mission trips to Saint Lucas, Guatemala, dozens of times and to Cuba, Belize, and Haiti.

As the chosen class mentor for the SMPH MD Class of 2002, he devoted half his time over four years as a fellow medical student. The students asked him to deliver their graduation address. In 2008, fourth-year medical students in the Gold Humanism Honor Society chose him as the first UW–Madison faculty member to receive the Leonard Tow Humanism Award. And in 2011, the Department of Medicine honored him with the Schilling-Harkness Teaching Award.

Contribute to the Joanne and Don Schalch Class of 2002 Scholarship