From his boyhood in Streator, Illinois, Carl W. Soderstrom Jr., M.D. carried a single conviction through every chapter of his life: to become a doctor and care for patients. Completing his medical degree in the turbulent 1960s at Cook County Hospital in Chicago and Jackson Memorial in Miami, he arrived in Rochester, Minnesota for four years of grueling, formative training at Mayo Clinic, where he would become the two-term President of the Mayo Association of Fellows. In this role, he led his fellow residents on a historic and risky campaign for better working conditions, salaries and benefits.

On behalf of the 800 residents at the Clinic, Soderstrom directed a courageous campaign to solve their exhausting workload, midnight terminations and low pay. Through a series of tumultuous underground meetings, the residents enumerated their complaints and retained a renowned labor lawyer with the threat of unionization, ultimately leading Soderstrom to present the grievances in-person to the Mayo Board of Trustees. After securing historic victories, he authored the seminal Benefit Book of 1973, a document that firmly established the residents’ hard fought successes and rights moving forward. He completed his board certification in two specialties, Internal Medicine and Dermatology.

Returning to Illinois in 1974, Soderstrom founded and built, over five decades, one of the most successful dermatology practices in the country: ten clinics, ten physicians, 220 employees, 140,000 patients a year, and a hub-and-spoke model that brought specialty dermatology and plastic surgery to towns large and small. And then, his loyalty to Mayo returned as gratitude: five decades of philanthropic leadership as a founding member of the O’Leary Society, the Plummer Society, service as the chairperson for Mayo’s Leadership Council on Alumni Philanthropy that raised tens of millions of dollars for the Mayo Endowment, and endless support for the Clinic’s mission worldwide, including generous personal gifts. The Clinic has bestowed upon him its highest awards and accolades.

This is the story of a physician’s unwavering, lifelong bond with Mayo Clinic, a crusader—as both a resident and entrepreneurial physician—who then became a benefactor for the institution he loved and the patients he served.