The lessons Dr. Thomas Pace learned at the University of Mississippi Medical Center more than four decades ago have shaped every stage of his career.
Today, the Greenville, South Carolina, physician and educator is ensuring those lessons continue to influence future generations through a $50,000 gift supporting orthopaedic resident education at UMMC.
The gift honors two physicians who profoundly impacted Pace’s life and career: Dr. Jim Hughes, UMMC’s first chair of the Department of Orthopaedics, and Dr. Frazier Ward, a respected orthopaedic surgeon and UMMC educator.
For Pace and his wife, Nancy, the tribute is deeply personal. Both are native Mississippians—he’s from Monticello and she’s from Philadelphia—and both worked at UMMC during the early years of their careers. In fact, they met when Dr. Pace’s clinical training rotated him through pediatrics. Additionally, both developed lasting relationships with Hughes and Ward long before Tom Pace embarked on a distinguished career in orthopaedic surgery and academic medicine.
“These individuals really elevated the level of orthopaedic care for the state, for the community and for medical education,” Pace said. “When I look back now, I realize they were laying out the framework for excellence in training, excellence in patient care, patient-centered care and physician self-care long before those became concepts we regularly talked about.”
The fund will help support orthopaedic residents attending the AO Foundation courses and educational conferences, providing opportunities to learn from experts beyond their home institution and gain exposure to new perspectives and techniques.
Pace believes those experiences were instrumental in his own development as a physician.
“All institutions have a tendency to become more like who they already are,” he said. “Bringing in outside perspectives, outside expertise and different cultural experiences broadens how we think and how we care for patients. That was something Dr. Hughes strongly believed in.”
Dr. Matthew Graves, chair of the UMMC Department of Orthopaedics and Rehabilitation, expressed gratitude for the Paces’ gift.
“Tom and Nancy’s generosity honors two extraordinary physicians while investing in the future of orthopaedic education,” he said. “Their gift will help residents access transformative learning experiences that expand their skills, strengthen patient care and carry forward the legacy of excellence established by Drs. Hughes and Ward. We are deeply grateful for their support and commitment to UMMC.”
During his training at UMMC in the early 1980s, Pace found mentors who modeled excellence not only in surgical skill but also in character.
“Dr. Ward and Dr. Hughes expected and demonstrated high standards of professional behavior,” Pace said. “They taught us that how you treat people matters just as much as the technical care you provide.”
One lesson from Ward has remained vivid throughout Pace’s career.
“I remember asking Dr. Ward to examine a difficult patient with me,” Pace recalled. “The first thing he did was ask the patient, ‘Would you mind if I examined your knee?’ Nobody had ever taught me that. It was such a simple act of respect, but it demonstrated that the patient’s dignity came first. That lesson has stayed with me for decades.”
Pace also credits Hughes with transforming orthopaedic education and fracture care in Mississippi by introducing pioneering surgical principles developed in Switzerland through the AO Foundation. Those evidence-based approaches advanced fracture treatment worldwide and helped establish UMMC as a respected center for orthopaedic trauma education.
“Dr. Hughes brought together extraordinary technical expertise and extraordinary humanity,” Pace said. “He recognized the talent that existed here, but he also understood the importance of bringing in outside knowledge and innovation. The result was better care, fewer complications and better outcomes for patients.”
Today, Pace serves on the faculty of the University of South Carolina School of Medicine Greenville and on staff at Prisma Health (formerly the Greenville Hospital System), focusing on education, research and mentoring future physicians. Although he no longer performs surgery, he continues to pass along the values he learned from Hughes and Ward.
“I still try to exemplify the principles they taught,” he said. “Their influence continues through the students and residents I teach every year.”
For Nancy Pace, a social worker who worked closely with pediatric patients at UMMC, the physicians’ legacy extends beyond medicine.
“I witnessed firsthand their respect for every member of the health care team — from nurses and therapists to social workers and support staff,” she said.
That spirit of collaboration is part of what inspired the couple to establish the fund.
“Our hope is that this support helps current and future leaders continue the traditions of excellent training, compassion and lifelong learning that Dr. Hughes and Dr. Ward instilled in their students,” Nancy Pace said.
The gift also reflects the Paces’ enduring gratitude to an institution and a community that helped shape both their professional and personal lives.
“Dr. Hughes and Dr. Ward influenced far more than my career,” Dr. Pace said. “They influenced my life.”
For more information on supporting orthopaedic health care at UMMC, visit http://www.umc.edu/givenow/ or contact Suzanne Crell, major gifts officer, at 601-815-8778 or screll@umc.edu.
By Bill Dabney/UM Foundation