University of Texas Southwestern Medical Branch
Retired Clinical Professor
CLASS OF 1959
It is no surprise that Dr. Sheldon Weinstein won the Society of Gynecologic Surgeons (SGS) Distinguished Surgeon Award in 2005. As an obstetrician and gynecologist, he has developed surgical instruments that have saved numerous lives and made surgery easier. He also earned international recognition for his work, traveling to numerous foreign countries to speak in conferences and seminars. Weinstein attributes his remarkable career to inspiration from Dr. Dewey Dieter at Washington & Jefferson College . “Dr. Dieter inspired me to the nth degree,” says Weinstein. “He just made the pre-med students feel special—like we all would go on to become physicians.”
Like many W&J graduates, Weinstein remained in touch with Dieter long after he left the College. Not only did Dieter help guide his career, but he was also a model for Weinstein, showing him how to be a good mentor. When Weinstein taught military ob-gyn residents at Walter Reed Hospital, and later when he became a clinical professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Branch in Dallas , he tried to lead his students as Dieter had guided him. Weinstein continues to teach and operate a private gynecology practice in Dallas . During his career, he also worked for six years as ABC’s medical reporter in Dallas, informing the public about how to protect its health.
While Weinstein is extremely thankful to W&J for giving him the foundation that he needed to enter the medical world, he is even more grateful for the multi-disciplinary liberal arts education he received. Even though he was a pre-med major, he particularly enjoyed courses in religion and economics, which gave him a break from his concentration in the sciences. The College’s sense of community and the dedication of its faculty also bred in him the desire to give something back to the community in which he lived.
