UI alumni give $1 million gift to Ponseti International

A $1 million gift to the University of Iowa Foundation from two UI graduates will enable the UI to continue the pioneering work of the late Dr. Ignacio Ponseti in countries around the world.

The gift, from Bob Whitmore and Molly Osterhaus Whitmore of Minneapolis, will provide funding for the UI Ponseti International Association.

The group trains health-care professionals in every nation to use the clubfoot treatment known as the Ponseti method.

This low-cost, non-surgical treatment was developed at the UI by Ponseti, a UI professor emeritus who died Oct. 18 at the age of 95.

A celebration of life for Ponseti will be 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday, in the Coral Ballroom at the Marriott Hotel and Conference Center in Coralville. The service is open to the public.

“With this gift, PIA will be able to effectively spread the use of the Ponseti method to even the poorest countries in the world, offering hope of a normal life to millions of children born with clubfoot,” said Dr. Stuart Weinstein, UI professor of orthopedic surgery.

Molly Whitmore earned a UI bachelor's degree in nursing in 1984. Bob Whitmore, executive vice president and chief technology officer of Seagate Technology, LLC, earned a UI bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering in 1986.

Bob Whitmore's father, William Whitmore, a retired orthopedic surgeon in Davenport, studied under Ponseti.

A brother of Molly Whitmore, Matthew Osterhaus of Maquoketa, was treated as a child with the Ponseti method; he went on to run for the UI cross-country team while earning his degree in pharmacy in 1980.

About 150,000 to 200,000 children worldwide are born each year with clubfoot, a crippling deformity that can leave patients disabled for life. An alternative to surgery, the Ponseti method uses gentle manipulation of the children's feet to correct the condition, leaving patients with full mobility.