Creighton University

Love of Farming, Medicine Blossom at Creighton

James Laumond, MD’64, credits a serendipitous decision to attend Creighton University School of Medicine with having long-lasting influences on his professional and personal life.

Creighton’s was the first medical school acceptance letter the University of California- Berkeley business/pre-med student received, and he quickly went to his father for the $100 he needed to secure his spot in the class.

Laumond was the son of immigrants; his father was born in France and his mother came from Sicily. He grew up in a poor, urban neighborhood in San Francisco. “We didn’t have much money,” he said. “Neither of my parents finished high school and no one in my family had been to college. My father wrote out the check, and that was that. It was probably the best decision we’ve ever made.”

His years spent in the Midwest at Creighton were full of new experiences for the California native. “Coming to Creighton introduced me to another way of life,” he said. “The Jesuit environment was a very significant and meaningful difference.”

The friends he made and the people he met in and around Omaha had a genuineness that he said he appreciates to this day. “I know I would have gotten into trouble if I had gone to any other medical school. I was a rolling stone until I got to Nebraska and discovered stability. The people at Creighton and in the community were honest, sincere and loving, and they guided me through.”

He also discovered his avocation at Creighton: farming. “I had to work while I was in medical school and I discovered I liked farming. I worked on farms in Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota. I did it all — I cleaned cisterns, worked on farm equipment and with livestock. I could take my books and work there on the weekends.”

Laumond returned to California as a family practitioner in San Mateo. His practice grew to include three clinics, and he established his own individual practice association (IPA), Health First, Inc. His clinics saw 15,000 to 20,000 patient visits per year and employed six physicians and about 20 other staff members before Laumond sold the business in 1997.

He had bought land in the foothills east of San Jose in 1978, and in retirement runs his 2,000-acre working cattle ranch with about 100 head of Hereford and a cow-calf operation. “Years later I found out both of my parents’ families were farmers, so I guess it was in my genes,” he said. Until recently, Laumond owned a farm in Beaver Crossing, Neb., as well.

The retired physician also established a clinic for the racetrack workers at Bay Meadows in San Mateo. “It’s a real pleasure to see it (the clinic) functioning as it is,” he noted.

He never forgot the ties he forged at Creighton, which have led him to visit Omaha about twice a year and make a number of financial gifts. Working with Director of Estate and Trust Services Steve Scholer, JD’79, Laumond funded his second charitable remainder trust at the University with a gift of real estate valued at $2.1 million.

“It makes sense to me, while I’m ‘vertical,’ to benefit the School of Medicine, receive income for life from the trust, and avoid much of the capital gains on an upcoming real estate sale,” Laumond said. “It gives me a great amount of satisfaction to be able to give something back to Creighton for all that it has given to me.”

“The School of Medicine is very grateful for the support provided by Dr. Laumond,” said Cam Enarson, M.D., dean of the School of Medicine. “His commitment to Creighton is reflective of a life lived in service to others.”

“Not a day goes by that I don’t see a ‘friend’ who was a patient of mine,” Laumond said. “The ethics I learned at Creighton, the sense of caring, stayed with me all my life. If I can help anyone else find something more in life than their own self-interests, then I’ll be real happy.”

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Creighton University
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