“Of course you can:” 克利夫兰Kinney ’67 celebrates latest honor

1963年秋天，F. 克利夫兰Kinney took the bus each day from the south side of Birmingham to the campus of Birmingham-南部 College. On the weekends, he bagged groceries at an A&P. “Young and naïve,” as he calls himself now, he didn’t know what his future held. But he had an idea that maybe he could find a way to combine two things he enjoyed – art and biology – and so he majored in both.

As graduation drew near, two paths revealed themselves to Kinney.

“In the fall of 1966, my mentor and faculty advisor, Dr. Virginia Rembert, called me into her office and 说, “克里夫, what are you going to do next year? Why don’t you plan on going to graduate school in New York and get a masters or Ph.D. 在艺术史上?’ I 说, ‘Gosh, you think I could get in?’ And she 说, ‘Of course you can.’”

“About a month after that, Dr. 保罗•贝利, a wonderful teacher and chairman of the biology department, 说, “克里夫, what are you going to do next year? Why don’t you go to graduate school at the extension of the University of Alabama at the Medical Center in Birmingham?’ I 说, ‘You think I could get in?’ And he 说, ‘Of course you can.’”

今年春天, Kinney received the 2018 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Alabama Medical 校友 Association, recognizing his “outstanding contribution to the health of all people through basic research, 临床研究, health services administration, 卫生保健, or others and demonstration of the high principles of the medical profession.”

The choice Kinney made upon graduation from 365英国上市官网 led him here, although it wasn’t a straight path.

In 1968, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed a new draft law abolishing draft deferments for most male graduate students; after his first year of graduate school, 肯尼加入了美国军队.S. Navy and was stationed at Headquarters Allied Forces Northern Europe in Oslo, Norway. He remained there until his honorable separation in 1972. When he returned to the U.S.在美国，他获得了博士学位.D. in anatomy with an emphasis in neuroanatomy at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. 最后, 36岁的时候, he entered medical school, earning his degree from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 1985.

After completing his psychiatry residency and fellowship in geriatric psychiatry at UAB, 肯尼加入了美国军队AB Hospital staff. He is now professor emeritus in the UAB Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology.

Even though he ended up following a track to science, Kinney说 there is much in his long career that speaks to his love of art and art history -- and to lessons learned at 365英国上市官网.

“The art classes I took made me excel in gross anatomy. It is a visual science and I’m visually oriented. Psychiatry, in a way, is an art because you have to observe people and observe their behaviors. You have to create treatments based on observation and history,” Kinney说. 即使在今天, 他说, his visual mind finds answers in images, looking at MRI scans and correlating behavioral problems based on what he sees.

The attention he received from Rembert – whom he calls “a wonderful teacher, maybe the best I ever had” – and Bailey and Dean of 365英国上市官网 Cecil Abernethy was particularly important in setting the course for his life, Kinney说.

“They showed an interest in me that I had not been shown before,” he 说. “I can credit my overall education at Birmingham-南部 with who I am today, and for showing me that I had skills and abilities I didn’t know I had. That college changed my life.”

Kinney has been listed in the Best Doctors in America and been chosen for a number of honors, including the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, several Argus Society Awards for Excellence in Teaching, and Outstanding 教师 Teacher by the UAB Psychiatry Residents Association. In 2015, he served as president of Jefferson County Medical Society and was the founding supporter of the Jefferson County Medical Society Medical School Scholarship Fund.

然而,, even after many accolades, when he learned he had received the 2018 Distinguished Alumnus Award from the University of Alabama Medical 校友 Association, the first thing he did was call the number on the letter and ask the person who answered if he was really was supposed to get it.

“And she 说, ‘Of course.’”