MELGAARD, Robert

Photo courtesy: Peggy Melgaard

MELGAARD, Robert Thor. (Plentywood, MT, Sept. 28, 1923-Apr. 7, 2000). Melgaard was the son of sharecroppers, Erick and Goldie Melgaard. Erick migrated to the United States from Norway when he was fourteen years old. They moved from Montana in 1925 or 1926 where Robert grew up on a farm in Concord, Tennessee. He was a graduate of Farragut High School, Knoxville, Tennessee in the class of 1941. He began college at Berea, in Berea, Kentucky. His plan was to study engineering. He served in the Army and Air Corp from 1943-1945. He then attended Vanderbuilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. He received his doctor of medicine degree at the University of Virginia College of Medicine, Richmond. He served his internship at the US Naval Hospital, Great Lakes, Illinois and the served in the Korean Conflict as a naval medical officer.

On December 6, 1952 he married Gloria Ann Weir ( Miss Hibbing, Minnesota 1951). He did his residency in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania until 1952 when he moved to Dubuque with his wife and young daughter, Peggy. There were eventually five more children.

Melgaard was chairman of Medical Associates Department of Pediatrics from 1955-1985 From 1974-1989, he served as chief executive officer of MEDICAL ASSOCIATES, Iowa's largest fully accredited clinic, and was executive director and medical director of Medical Associates HMO until his retirement in 1989. As an administrator, he was credited with being a visionary who saw the clinic's health maintenance organization grow from infancy in 1982, two years before the HMO concept enjoyed an explosion of development across the United States.

In addition to his activities in health service administration, Melgaard served as president of the American Group Practice Association and the Area Residential Care Foundation. He was a member of the DUBUQUE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, Iowa Medical Society, and the CLARKE COLLEGE Board of Trustees. At the time of his death he was working two jobs; as a surveyor for the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care.