Peter J. Jannetta*

The grandson of Italian immigrants, Peter Jannetta was born in Philadelphia in 1932, but his early years were spent in Haddonfield, New Jersey. His father had been forced to quit school at the age of 12 to go to work as a barber, but put himself through night school to get a high school diploma, then through college, and then law school. Rather than practice law, however, Jannetta's father went into the restaurant business.

Growing up in Haddonfield was difficult for Jannetta. He was loved at home but felt like an outsider in the socially stratified community. When he was 14, the family moved to York, Pennsylvania, where Jannetta began to blossom. He was on the high school swim team that won the state championship and was named All-American. He also served as vice president of the student body and president of the National Honor Society.

Jannetta attended the University of Pennsylvania and earned a degree in zoology. He sold Fuller Brushes and worked in a lab while attending medical school. He became a general surgical resident at Penn, followed by a neurosurgical residency at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA).

His distinguished 37-year career took him from associate in neurological surgery at UCLA to chairman of Louisiana State University Medical Center's Department of Neurological Surgery, and then to the same position at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He later gave up his chairmanship and became the Walter E. Dandy professor of neurological surgery, which gave him more time to do investigative work and the surgery that work encompasses. The medical school established the Peter J. Jannetta chair in neurosurgery.

Success to Jannetta meant giving more than taking. "I was brought up to understand that if you work and do a good job, you will get financial reward, but that isn't why you work," he said, urging young people to focus on the values and characteristics needed to do well in medicine. "You have to be honest, ethical, moral, smart, energetic, creative, and mentally and physically fit."

Jannetta said his Horatio Alger Award was "the best thing that ever happened to me. It has changed my life. The members, who feel like family to me, don't take themselves seriously, but they do take their work seriously. I am humbled to be a part of this organization."