With careers spanning decades in medicine, Drs. Tim Flynn and Marian Limacher are giving back to help first-generation medical students get their own starts at the UF College of Medicine. Together, they have established the Timothy C. Flynn, MD, And Marian C. Limacher, MD, Medical Scholarship Endowment fund.
Both felt it was important to support the place that gave them so much through a private gift. They spent the bulk of their careers at UF Health, having joined UF as faculty in 1984. During their tenure, they have each served in various leadership roles between the College of Medicine and the Malcom Randall Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Flynn retired from UF in 2018, and Limacher retired in 2019.
“We’ve had tremendous opportunities, and we felt it was a real privilege to participate in the education and training of young physicians,” said Limacher, emerita professor and former senior associate dean for faculty affairs and professional development at the UF College of Medicine. “In this stage of life, we wanted to give back to the university in a meaningful way.”
Marian Limacher, MD, and Timothy Flynn, MD, decided to give back to future UF medical students by establishing a scholarship fund after fulfilling careers at the College of Medicine. The scholarship will support students who are the first in their family to attend medical school, as each of them were. Flynn and Limacher noted how their own beginnings in medicine grew from modest means, and they hope to ease the financial burden for those in a similar pursuit.
“We’re hoping we can have the opportunity to offer some young person the opportunity to go to medical school who otherwise could not,” said Flynn, UF College of Medicine emeritus professor and former senior associate dean for clinical affairs and UF Health Shands chief medical officer. “Maybe a scholarship would help to attract an individual who may not have chosen Florida.”
The gift is meaningful for the couple in many ways. They share a deep love and respect for the institution and the people they worked alongside. More important is their desire to make a tangible difference in an individual’s life. This is what attracted them to establish a scholarship fund, so that they may directly impact a student seeking a career in medicine.
They also hope this will help students who are deciding between multiple schools but need the financial assistance to sway their decision.
Flynn and Limacher encourage faculty members and others who have enjoyed long-running careers at UF to consider giving back to the institution, too, and help the next generation of physicians. They see their gift as an investment in the Gainesville community, bringing talented future physicians to the university who will ideally return the generosity by supporting the organization once they establish their own medical careers.
“It’s important for us to give back because it’s part of our ethos,” Limacher said. “We have been so privileged in our careers. It’s our way to say thank you.”