Gary Turner, M.D.Gary Turner, M.D., a former faculty member in the UAB Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, has continued to support the department through an endowed lectureship that routinely brings internationally renowned experts to share their expertise with residents, fellows, and faculty.
Thanks to Turner’s gift, the department hosts the Gary T. Turner Lectureship every two years in conjunction with the UAB Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery Clinical Practice Update.
The path to head and neck surgery
Turner started his medical career in general surgery. While he was training at the University of Iowa for medical school, followed by UAB for residency, the country was grappling with the throes of the Vietnam War, with the military draft in full effect.
“I came to UAB because of Dr. John Kirklin,” Turner recalled. “One day, Dr. Kirklin called all the residents in and said we had to join the Berry Plan if we were going to continue. At that time, I was getting a little disgruntled, and I decided I’m not going to do it, and I did not raise my hand.”
The Berry Plan was a Vietnam War-era program that allowed physicians to defer obligatory military service until they had completed medical school and residency training. After training, they were required to serve in the military for a period of time.
As Turner’s birthday came up in the draft lottery, he was not called to serve, and his priorities shifted to head and neck surgery.
“I'd taken a rotation with Dr. Bill Maddox, who was very well known for doing head and neck cancer surgery,” Turner said. “It caught my attention, and I really enjoyed it.”
Developing a career in otolaryngology
Following a conversation with James Hicks, M.D., then-chair of otolaryngology at UAB, Turner switched his specialty to otolaryngology and completed his residency in 1977. He entered private practice in Birmingham with Ed Stevenson, M.D., where he maintained a busy surgical practice for 35 years.
After Stevenson retired from the practice, Turner contemplated his next move.
“I was thinking about kind of winding down from a busy surgical practice,” Turner said. “And so I sent a letter to Dr. Glenn Peters, who was chairman at that time.”
Peters, who spent time in Turner and Stevenson’s practice during his own training, hired Turner on as faculty in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery in 2010.
“I ended up at UAB in my latter clinical years and had a wonderful time and was in the department almost four-and-a-half years before I retired from clinical practice,” Turner said. “It was an excellent experience.”
When reflecting on why he entered the field of otolaryngology in the first place, Turner said it was head and neck surgery itself that attracted him to the profession. At the time when Hicks served as chairman, providers in private practice would often ask Hicks to send UAB Otolaryngology residents to help with various procedures.
“Dr. Stevenson put in that request several times,” Turner said. “So, I would go out and help him do head and neck cancer surgery. And of course, that was a way for him to get to know me as a person and my skills, and for me to get to know him. So, it was actually an excellent program that we had at that time.”
A calling to give back
From emerging otolaryngologist to a seasoned faculty member, Turner’s impact at UAB came full circle. After retiring from the UAB faculty in 2014, Turner initiated an effort to extend that impact even further—through an endowed lecture in his name.
Conversations starting with William Carroll, M.D., who became chair in 2017, followed by Brad Woodworth, M.D., who served as interim chair from 2021 to 2024, sparked the idea of connecting an endowed lectureship to the department’s biennial clinical update meeting in the fall.
“That combination really impressed me,” Turner said. “And so I thought it was an excellent idea because it was a way to enhance that fall meeting.”
The Gary T. Turner Lectureship was formally established in 2022 to bring notable experts in otolaryngology to the clinical practice update event to share their knowledge and expertise. Since its establishment, the lectureship has hosted three invited speakers, the most recent being Sam P. Most, M.D., professor and chief of the Division of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at Stanford University Medical Center. Turner himself makes a point of attending the lectures and clinical practice updates.
“The speakers under the lectureship have been identified as being leaders in the field, Turner said. “And so by the way of the endowment, they're able to come and give a lecture at that fall meeting, which benefits not only the department, but it also helps benefit the people attending it, the practicing otolaryngologists here in the state and surrounding states that come in for the meeting. It's really been quite successful.”
When considering the impact of his own gift, Turner said he would encourage others to consider endowing a lectureship or faculty position as a means of uplifting the future of the field.
“I think success does not occur in a vacuum,” Turner said. “Success comes from an institution or people or both, such as the department that provides individuals with knowledge and skill so that they can be successful. I think it's good to acknowledge that and then try to keep the process of training residents who are ultimately going to replace us to also be successful.”
He continued: “I think it's very rewarding to be able to participate in that endeavor, to continue to have quality trained individuals coming out of the same department that you, as an otolaryngologist, trained in.”