Dr. Eugene E. Skroch

I worked with dr. Sir ouch at st Mary's in the70's. Always a pleasure to work with him when he would admit patients to my unit. God bless you all.

Betsy joins me in sharing our condolences at Uncle Gene's passing. We both admired and loved him dearly. Certainly, he was a great physician. He was also a great person--husband, father, grandfather, and uncle! Our thoughts and memories of Gene's generosity will be forever be in our hearts. Mark Zanna

The Baumgartner family sends their condolences.

My father-in-law was an inspiration to me. I will miss our visits as I enjoyed his humor and incredible knowledge. He is probably talking in Polish with the angels.

My grandfather was always a leader and a teacher. He was determined to show us the "whys" and "hows" of subjects that interested him. He placed exceptional value on education and encouraged all of us to learn and to achieve. In his opinion, if you weren't achieving at the highest level, then you should go back and do it again! He also cared very much about people. On a personal level, he was always eager to look into hurt ears and repair childhood scrapes. All memories of childhood illnesses for me include him sitting on the edge of my bed explaining why my ear was red and why the antibiotics would help . Then tucking me in and calling later to check in. On a professional level, he was an exceptional surgeon, not only because he was technically precise, but also because he really cared about his patients as people. As a little girl, I remember former patients sending flowers and gifts at holidays -- people he treated 20 or 30 years ago! They would write him amazing kind notes of thanks for taking such care of them and their families. I remember being so proud that HE was my grandfather. He also didn't hesitate to share his opinion, even about the most minor things. For example, a few months ago when we were eating together with my small children, he asked my daughter, Grace, if she liked to eat vegetables. She responded, "yes," and looked at me -- because that was the right answer! He said, "Well, that's good. I hate them. I only ate them when my children were small because Grandma made me set a good example, but I quit as soon as the kids left the house." He was also very committed to his Catholic faith. He set a strong example of faith and family for all of us and all he met. We love you Grandpa. We will carry your love, lessons and wisdom with us in our hearts.

Dr. Eugene Skroch was my grandfather. Each of us is uniquely different from one another and that is what makes life so amazing. We have the opportunity to meet, interact with, and if we are lucky enough, be related to some truly incredible people. As we begin to mold who we are as a person; our humor, our beliefs, our goals, our outlook on life, we model our behavior on those around us. We take little bits here and little bits there from our role models in attempt to become another unique, wonderful person. Rarely, we are blessed to have a role model that is such a wonderful person. We have no possible way of even trying to ferret out the best of what that person is in trying to mirror ourselves. My grandfather was one of those people and I extremely fortunate to have been his grandson. One of those characteristics that I will never achieve was his brilliance. I cannot overestimate how smart he was. He graduated first in his medical school class at the University of Wisconsin and then completed his general surgical training at the Mayo Clinic. Following residency he practiced as a general surgeon at a time in our profession when I truly believe it was never harder to be a general surgeon. The American Board of Surgery calls me a general surgeon also, but my abilities as a physician pale and will never reach a fraction of what my grandfather was capable of. As a general surgeon, he did cardiac surgery, vascular surgery, pediatric surgery, and anything else you could imagine. You could never ask a general surgeon today to do what he did day in and day out. Despite his brilliance, and he knew how smart he truly was, he was also one of most humble people I have ever met. I grew up listening to his medical stories about operations and patients but one event in my training in regards to my grandfather sticks out as my fondest medical memory of him. I was a fourth year medical student on an elective surgical rotation and was able to spend it here in Madison. I was rotating with a surgeon who was actually trained as a resident under my grandfather years before. I went to the operating room one day and Dr. Manning introduced me as a medical student to the personnel in the operating room. He then turned to the scrub tech, a middle aged woman, and introduced me to her as Dr. Skroch’s grandson. Even though she was wearing a scrub mask, I could see her face light up. She said that she had been a scrub tech in that hospital for over thirty years and her favorite surgeon she ever worked with was my grandfather. She praised his kindness, his patience, and his calm demeanor in the operating room. This was not an isolated incident either. Everyone, who ever worked with him, always commented on how amazing he was as a surgeon, a teacher, and a person. Another characteristic he possessed was that of service. It was inherent in his decision to become a physician but it ran deeper than that. I am honored to have family members on both sides of my family that I truly admire in regards to their military service. My grandfather served in the military during World War II and the Korean War. While serving as a surgeon in the US Navy during WWII he had a few funny stories about his time in the Pacific theater. First and foremost was that he was seasick for his entire trip across the ocean. Luckily, I did not seem to inherit that trait from him. We have a lot of sayings in the military, most of which cannot be said here. One of which, “getting the t-shirt,” relates to an accomplishment, whether it be a service school, an exam, a deployment, or anything that takes an extraordinary amount of time and effort. In context, it usually sounds something like this, “been there, done that, and I got the t-shirt.” Usually it’s also said if you are speaking of something that you have no plans to ever do again. If a life could be broken down into a sense of accomplishment, of selfless service, and achievement then my grandfather most definitely got the t-shirt. I honor him today and will always honor him for his service to his country as one veteran to another. Lastly, I would like to talk about his humor. He was a really funny man. His humor was as sharp as his wit and he was always there with a smile. Although my mother and her brothers may attest differently, I can’t say that I ever saw him upset a single time in my life. His smile was infectious and genuine and wonderful. It was hard to ever be upset with him around. As Russell Crowe stated in a relatively recent movie, “Death smiles at us all, all a man can do is smile back.” His mind never failed him and he most definitely never lost his smile. That I will always remember. Reed B Kuehn, MD MAJ, MC, USA