Athens, Ohio - The Wilfred R. and Ann Lee Konneker Award for Distinguished and Enduring Service was awarded to C. Frederick Kittle on September 24, 2004 at the Ohio University Baker Center.

The Konneker award recognizes those individuals who have demonstrated remarkable achievements in their professional endeavors, community service, and a solid, selfless, unflagging dedication to the college and its students over a period of years.  This is the highest award the College gives.

C. Frederick Kittle, AB '42, LLD '67

C. Frederick Kittle is one of the thousands of students influenced by legendary Ohio University professor Rush Elliott. Few of them, however, can equal Kittle's accomplishments.

A native of Athens, Dr. Kittle received a bachelor's degree in zoology from Ohio University in 1942. He went on to earn his medical degree at the University of Chicago and completed his training in thoracic surgery at the University of Kansas.

Kittle says he became a surgeon at Elliott's urging. And it's been lucky for many that he did. In his 40-year career, Kittle has helped thousands of patients - including an 8-year-old boy who in 1969 became the world's then-youngest recipient of a heart transplant. It was the first such procedure performed in Chicago.

He has practiced at the University of Kansas School of Medicine, the Oak Ridge Institute of Nuclear Studies, Veterans Administration hospitals in Missouri and Kansas, the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinic, Cook County Hospital, Municipal Tuberculosis Sanitarium of Chicago, Rush Medical College, and Rush Medical Center. Now retired, Kittle is professor emeritus of thoracic surgery at Chicago's Rush Medical College, where he had been a faculty member since 1973. Before his retirement, he also was a consultant in thoracic surgery at St. Luke's Hospital in Chicago.

In his long career, Kittle has belonged to more than 30 professional organizations and has served as an officer or committee member of 25 of them. Among his memberships are the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the American College of Surgeons. He is the author of more than 200 journal articles in cardiology and thoracic surgery, as well as the book Current Controversies in Thoracic Surgery.

In his private life, Kittle is among the world's premier collectors of Doyleana -- items by or related to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, himself a physician and the creator of Sherlock Holmes. Kittle became fascinated by Doyle as a surgical resident in Kansas City, when he read a 19-page medical lecture Doyle had given at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London. For more than 30 years, he collected books, manuscripts, letters, and other items related to Doyle. In 2003, he donated his collection of more than 600 items-- including hundreds of first editions -- to the Newberry Library.

Kittle has been equally generous to his alma mater, chairing fundraising campaign committees and giving to the University. Most particularly, he was one of the driving forces behind the endowment of a professorship in Rush Elliott's memory. In recognition of his accomplishments and services to the University, Kittle has received the Ohio University Alumni Association Medal of Merit in 1966 and the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Alumni Award in 1996.

"In honoring Fred Kittle, we recognize not only his own extraordinary accomplishments but also the guidance and direction he received from his mentor, Rush Elliott.  The College of Arts and Sciences is deeply grateful for the long-standing and generous devotion to Ohio University of both."

                                                                          -Leslie A. Flemming, dean,

                                                                          College of Arts and Sciences