March 23, 2021

Inspiration | Dr. Jim Lundeen

Central, Clinical Partners, Life@Work

Surgeon, Partner, Founder & Friend

Dr. Andrea Lundeen Kales watched her dad, Dr. Jim Lundeen, put in decades of long hours, making calls and missing dinners. He was known as one of the “three Jims” — Jim Jost, Jim Devink and Jim Lundeen — who along with Dr. Terry Pladson and a number of others put together the organization we know as CentraCare today. 

Dr. Lundeen scrubbed in for the last time earlier this month, alongside his daughter, before retiring on a week that coincided with his 73^rd birthday. “He loved what he did,” Dr. Andrea Lundeen Kales said, who recalled the party his family had for him a few years back when he took his last call after 38 years. 

“He’s on a shortlist of people I hold in such regard,” said long-time colleague and hospitalist Dr. Darin Willardsen, “In Hospitalist medicine, we many times rely on our colleagues for coordinated help. Dr. Lundeen has always been one of the giants in the surgery field upon the shoulders of which I have stood.“  

Dr. Tom Schrup, Chief Physician Officer, shared Dr. Willardsen’s praise, “Dr. Jim Lundeen represents physicians at their very best — dedicated to excellence in his craft, patient-centered, and a leader in our organization and the community.”

Many others feel the same way. Unbeknownst to Dr. Lundeen, when he walked out of the OR for the last time, the halls were filled with colleagues there to pay tribute to him. He was to many an outstanding teacher, colleague and friend. 

Farewell Walk | Video

“When I went to med school, I said that I was never going to move back to St. Cloud and I was never going to be a surgeon,” Andrea said as she recounted her aim of a career in radiology before discovering during her intern year that surgery was her calling. The elder Dr. Lundeen accompanied Andrea and her son when she was inducted into the American College of Surgeons. At the induction ceremony, the incoming president spoke of the profession of surgery and of excellence, then said that she didn’t choose surgery as much as surgery chose her. “That was my father,” Andrea said, “He made the same comment. Surgery chose him.”

Just think how many people’s lives were made better because of it.