Dr.
Mims Aultman
'My Loyalty is to the Medical College of Georgia'
As a child, when asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, Dr. Mims Aultman clearly and decisively stated, “A doctor.”
“I think in a way it was just in my heritage to be a doctor,” he said. “That was the only thing I ever wanted to do. When people would ask me, I never said a fireman or anything; I always said a doctor.”
Growing up in the small south Georgia town of Meigs, he spent most of his spare time working in his family’s drugstore. His pharmacist father inherited the store from Dr. Aultman’s grandfather, Dr. Iverson Rhett Aultman, an 1895 graduate of the Medical College of Georgia.
“I didn’t know my grandfather, but I was always proud of the fact that he was an MCG graduate,” said Dr. Aultman, who placed his ancestor’s diploma on permanent loan with the School of Medicine Alumni Association. “All the people in my hometown mentioned him fondly and said he was a good physician [who was] very attentive to his patients.”
Dr. Aultman took the first step to his lifelong goal by graduating from MCG in 1953. He has worked hard ever since to strengthen his alma mater.
“Not long after I graduated, I helped with typing envelopes to alumni to encourage donations to the MCG Foundation,” said Dr. Aultman, a charter member who received the MCG School of Medicine’s Distinguished Alumni Award for Loyalty in 2004.
“We knew from the beginning that part of our contributions would allow the president to recruit the best faculty. The state didn’t allow you to pay for travel to Augusta and allow someone to visit the school, so our donations helped that effort,” he said. “I started making contributions, to a large degree, because I wanted us to name a chair in medicine for Dr. [Virgil P.] Sydenstricker. He was a grand man and he had an inspiring personality.”
In 1976, MCG Hospital opened its Sydenstricker Building in honor of the world-renowned physician researcher and chair of the Department of Medicine from 1922-57.
“I think he taught us a lot about patients,” said Dr. Aultman, who completed residency training under Dr. Sydenstricker. “Every patient was treated with great respect. He wouldn’t let us refer to a patient as a case of whatever disease. He would tell us, ‘That’s not a case of diabetes in room 101, that’s Mrs. Jones.’ Buildings may eventually get torn down or the name gets lost, but a professorship can continue to honor his name.”
After an internship in internal medicine, Dr. Aultman applied for active Army duty in the Far East. “I thought, ‘I would like to travel. I’ve never been outside of the southeastern United States. Why not do something like that?’” He served primarily in hospital management positions in Japan, Germany and Vietnam. He retired in 1993 as director of health care at the U.S. Soldiers’ and Airmen’s Home in Washington, D.C., where he now lives and enjoys theater, opera and symphony.
Being a career army officer, Dr. Aultman noted, “I didn’t make a lot of money, but I continued to give [to the MCG Foundation] when I could because I felt it was important.”
Dr. Aultman also became a member of Milton Anthony Guild, named in honor of MCG’s founder, by including MCG in his estate plans. Members will be honored in November at the President’s Dinner in three significant and appropriate ways.
“My loyalty and the basic part of my pocketbook is attributed to the Medical College of Georgia,” said Dr. Aultman. “I think [giving to MCG] is important to the state and to the people because [MCG] has traditionally produced graduates who remain within the state to practice.”
--Ellen Gladden