May 8th was a great day to be a Rotarian as RCAA presented the Robert S. Northrup Humanitarian Award to Dr. Robert H. Gilman MD, DMD. He is recognized for serving in multiple Rotary International areas of focus, including Disease Prevention and Treatment, Maternal and Child Health, and Basic Education and Literacy.

As a practicing and teaching plastic surgeon for over 40 years, with tremendous credentials, Dr. Gilman leads medical missions to Cartagena, Colombia to provide surgical and follow up care of pediatric deformities to the children of Colombia. This year he completed the 24th mission, traveling under the auspices of Healing the Children, NE.

Beginning in 1998 as a participant in a medical mission, Dr. Gilman quickly became a mission leader and a team leader. This year’s mission included 60 surgeries as well as follow-up care visits. Over 1300 surgeries have been done through the years.

Dr. Gilman builds medical teams of 20 individuals to care for congenital, traumatic and disease related pediatric deformities, most commonly cleft lip and palate. The long term care and additional surgeries required for the children has the team returning to the same location each year. The residents are often very poor and travel long distances to attend the clinic. Beyond the health benefits of their treatment, the children and their families benefit from acceptance in their communities, and the ability to attend schools.

Dr. Gilman works to ensure the sustainability of the missions with support of the local Rotary Club, Fundacion Club Rotario Cartagena Caribe, which provides transportation, housing and food for the team, as well as communication to the communities of upcoming clinics. Dr. Gilman draws from Harvard and U. of Michigan colleagues to build his teams, and is mentoring new leaders for the mission, while supporting education to the medical teams of Cartagena. He works year round fundraising to support surgical residents to experience international medical mission work.

His nominators, Bev Seiford and Greg Stejskal, provided an introduction to Dr. Gilman, including personal notes of his love of music as a drummer in bands, and recognizing his wife Chris Gilman in supporting his service.

In addition to the Northrup Award Dr. Gilman received a Paul Harris Award. Congratulations to Dr. Gilman.