Richard Gardner, MD, Creates an Endowment with a Planned Gift

Long before he became an Army officer and physician, Richard Gardner, MD, found adventure at sea. As an undergraduate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, he spent two summers aboard a converted Liberty ship working with the Merchant Marines, traveling to Europe, the Caribbean, and through the Bermuda Triangle. The experience not only broadened his perspective but also helped him pay for college.

“I made great money and had no place to spend it while on the cruise,” he recalls. “I was able to pay for annual tuition with one summer’s worth of work.” That determination and self-reliance shaped Dr. Gardner’s life and ultimately inspired a planned gift to support future doctors—especially those who want to be pediatricians, like him.

A Kingsport, Tennessee, native and valedictorian of Dobyns-Bennett High School’s class of 1968, Dr. Gardner traces his interest in medicine to stories his grandfather shared about an ancestor who served as a “horse and buggy” doctor. Combined with a family culture rooted in compassion and service, those stories sparked a lifelong calling.

While attending UT Knoxville, he spent two years as a cheerleader before enrolling at UT Health Sciences—where he earned his medical degree in 1975. An ROTC scholarship led him to the U.S. Army, launching a career that blended medicine and military service.

At UT Health Sciences, Dr. Gardner was influenced by mentors including Pat Wall, MD; James Hughes, MD; and Phillip George, MD. Their guidance helped him develop not only clinical expertise but also a deep appreciation for the human side of medicine. After medical school, he completed his pediatric residency at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, caring for seriously ill children, many of whom were being treated in hematology and oncology. The experience reinforced the compassion and resilience required in pediatric care. During more than 20 years in the Army, he practiced pediatrics in Germany and Louisiana before pursuing a second specialty in orthopedic surgery. He retired as a lieutenant colonel and continued practicing for nearly three decades.

Today Dr. Gardner and his wife Karen travel the country full-time in an RV. In retirement he also created the Dr. Richard Dennis Gardner, Sr. Endowment, a planned gift that will support pediatric residents, fellows, and medical students pursuing pediatrics. Through this gift, Dr. Gardner hopes to strengthen pediatric care for generations to come.

“Money can be the root of tremendous good if you use it the right way,” he says. “This is one of the best ways to use it.”

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The University of Tennessee Foundation Inc., is the preferred channel for all private contributions that benefit students and faculty within the UT System.