June marks the end of an era at WashU Neurosurgery. After 34 years of exemplary service, T.S. Park, MD, is officially retiring from St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
Born in South Korea, Dr. Park graduated from the Yonsei University College of Medicine and also completed his neurosurgery residency there. In 1976, he came to the University of Virginia to obtain further residency training in neurosurgery and later matriculated to the Ohio State University and the University of Toronto for training in pediatric neurosurgery. To our great fortune, Dr. Park was recruited to Washington University in 1989 by former Chair Ralph G. Dacey, Jr., MD and was charged with developing a pediatric neurosurgery program at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Dr. Dacey clearly foresaw that Dr. Park would build one of the finest pediatric neurosurgery divisions in the country.
During his tenure, Dr. Park mentored innumerable pediatric neurosurgery fellows and faculty, and pioneered improvements to a neurosurgical procedure called Selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR), which restores mobility in children with spastic cerebral palsy. Patients from around the world have been traveling to St. Louis for three decades for this procedure, and on May 24 Dr. Park completed his final SDR surgery bringing his grand total up to 5,323.
Dr. Park was repeatedly recognized for his innovations in science and neurosurgery including receiving the prestigious Javits Neuroscience Investigator Award from the National Institutes of Health in 1999, the H. Richard Winn, MD Prize for Meritorious Research from the Society of Neurological Surgeons in 2008, and the Distinguished Faculty Clinician Award in 2011 and Distinguished Faculty Award in 2013 from the School of Medicine.
It is hard to imagine the neurosurgery department without Dr. Park, but his legacy of compassionate care and surgical excellence will live on at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and the School of Medicine for years to come. Dr. Park truly has been a “guardian of childhood.” Dr. Park, his family, neurosurgery faculty and his devoted SDR team celebrated his retirement with an unveiling of his portrait, which will hang in the pediatric neurosurgery office.
Dr. Park poses with his new portrait. 
Neurosurgery Chair Gregory J. Zipfel, MD, and former Chair Ralph G. Dacey, Jr., MD, present T.S. Park, MD, with his portrait. 
Dr. Park is presented with a proclamation for distinguished service from the President of St. Louis Children’s Hospital Trish Lollo and Dr. Adam Eaton. 
Members of Dr. Park’s Selective dorsal rhizotomy team: Nicole Meyer, PA, Deanna Walter, MPT, and Mindy Hammond. 
Former trainees and colleagues. From left to right: Jarod Roland, MD, Sean McEvoy, MD, Matt Smyth, MD, Peter Yang, MD, and Jeffrey Leonard, MD. 
Dr. Eaton, SLCH President Trish Lollo and Vice President of Operations and Support Services of BJC and SLCH Gary LaBlance. 
The SDR team, Keith Patten, FNP-C, Mindy Hammond and Nicole Meyer, PA, celebrate Dr. Park’s final SDR surgery. 
Dr. Park’s portrait will hang in the administrative offices of WashU pediatric neurosurgery.