Leslie Julia Baber, MD
Leslie Julia Baber, MD ’01, Res ’05, remembered by her family and friends with donations to IEEI Library
Residency Alumna
—Remembered by her family and friends
Donor Story Heading link
Former Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary resident Leslie Julia Baber passed away in January 2009 at age 37 after a long battle against cancer. Her husband, Ronan O’Malley, requested that gifts in her memory be made to the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary Library, which he says she “cherished as a refuge from the fast pace and stress of her ophthalmology residency.”
Dr. Baber, a Texas native, came north to attend the University of Chicago where she met Mr. O’Malley as an undergraduate. Her intellectual curiosity led her to try many different courses before deciding to be a doctor her senior year, a late decision that required she take an additional year of pre-med courses. She proved to be an outstanding medical student, making the dean’s list every year at the University of Illinois College of Medicine and becoming a member of the medical honor society, Alpha Omega Alpha.
Her decision to pursue ophthalmology was influenced by her future father-in-law Patrick O’Malley, a retina specialist in South Bend, Indiana, with whom Dr. Baber spent many holidays. “She went to watch him work a couple times,” recalled Ronan O’Malley. “She enjoyed technical, detail-oriented things, so ophthalmology suited her, particularly micro-surgery. She was good with her hands. She had a delicate touch.”
Dr. Baber thrived on her interaction with the children she treated. “She was an incredible pediatric ophthalmologist,” says Jo Adamcik, the executive assistant to David Granet MD, director of the University of California at San Diego’s Ratner Children’s Eye Center, where Dr. Baber was on staff when she passed away. Dr. Marilyn Miller, former director of UIC’s Pediatric Ophthalmology Service, agrees. “I remember Julie as an excellent resident with outstanding skills, knowledge and great compassion. She was wonderful with children and appreciated by their parents and everyone in our section.”
Dr. Baber collaborated on a forthcoming book about children’s eye diseases with Dr. Granet throughout her intensive radiation and chemotherapy treatments. When it is published, the book will hold an honored place in the Illinois Eye and Ear Infirmary Library.
To date, more than $10,000 has been given in Julie Baber’s name by her classmates, family members and other donors from across the country. The money is being used to purchase educational materials primarily focused on pediatric ophthalmology.
The bookplate designed for Baber fund acquisitions features a daisy, a tribute to Julie’s love of gardening and her high school basketball team, the Daisies.