A Class of One: First PA Graduate was able to Help Patients for Nearly 50 Years

By Loralyn Cecil
CHS Philanthropy Director

Photo by Jeff Jolly

In 1965, Dr. Eugene Stead, who is considered the first person with the idea to train “physician assistants,” opened the first academic PA program at Duke University. Two year later, the first PAs graduated from that program. Only one year after that, Thomas Kotheimer graduated from the University of Kentucky with a Clinical Associate certificate —he was the first person trained as a physician assistant here at UK.

And he was from a class of one. 

Starting the Journey 

Joseph Hamburg, Dean of the College of Health Sciences, met the young Kotheimer at a bar in an airport in Evansville, Ind. After the meeting, Hamburg sent him a letter inviting him to enroll, and Kotheimer accepted the offer, although he had no idea of the challenges ahead. 

“I was the only one,” Kotheimer said. “I had no classmates.”

And if that wasn’t challenging enough, as an undergraduate, he had to take four medical school classes. His medical school classmates had not only earned college degrees already, but each had succeeded at a high enough level to be admitted to medical school. 

“The med students had the advantage of having completed core curriculum,” Kotheimer said. “I was taking the core curriculum at the same time as I was taking medical school courses. It was a very difficult time.”

In 1968, Kotheimer took the Kentucky State Medical Exam. He passed just weeks after having completed his undergraduate degree in just two years. 

Fast-Paced Career

Kotheimer’s career began moving quickly. Newly armed with his degree and a Clinical Associate certificate from the College, Kotheimer and his wife moved to Galveston, Texas.

He worked in internal medicine for the Department of Medicine at the University of Texas while his wife worked writing grants for the neurosurgery program. They enjoyed their work at UT but felt a passion for rural health, so Kotheimer and his wife moved back to Kentucky. In the western Kentucky town of Cadiz, he worked for a doctor with a small practice. The doctor, though, decided after a couple of years, that he wanted to move to Iowa. He asked Kotheimer to join him, but Kotheimer wasn’t interested. 

Instead, he accepted an invitation to work at a veteran’s hospital in Muskegee, Okla. While there, he was asked by the University of Oklahoma to join three of the early graduates of the Duke University physician assistant program, as instructors in a newly created PA program. Through the program, Kotheimer and his colleagues focused on helping to train servicemen and women who had worked as physicians in Vietnam. Kotheimer and his colleagues also worked with both the PA and medical residents as they went through clinical rotations. 

“Our program at the VA was progressive — especially in post-graduation training,” he said. “We provided rotations in many specialty areas.”

The Veteran’s Administration supported the PA profession, he said.

“When they saw that they did not have enough medical support in their hospitals, they very quietly supported the development of the PA concept,” he said. “It turned out to be very successful. The VA does a lot of really nice work.”

Kotheimer and his wife adopted a child while living in Oklahoma. Naturally, this changed their lives, and they wanted to move closer to family. And while his work was ever important, Kotheimer decided to put down roots. In 1972, he and his wife moved to Orlando — and they’ve been in Florida ever since. 

Kotheimer worked in pulmonary critical care in Jacksonville before studying hematology/oncology and working in that specialty for many years.

“It was a good time to be a PA,” said Kotheimer, who used his degree to build a career with many interesting facets and was able to help many people.

Reflections on a Career

“I was so fortunate to begin in the ‘60s before CT (computed tomography) scans and the rise of technology,” he said. “At that time the physical examination and medical history were essential for the practice of medicine and essential to making a diagnosis. It was the very basis for the practice of medicine.

“My patients taught me about their needs and how to care for them,” Kotheimer said. “I learned that instead of telling them what to do, I should ask how we could help them. My heart is full from the people I have helped care.”  

Kotheimer retired in 2017 after working almost 50 years as a PA.

“It was a wonderful career,” he said. “You couldn’t ask for more.”

UK Alumnus

After Kotheimer graduated, UK did not graduate another student with the education and training to be a physician assistant until 1975.

And while the program was incredibly arduous for the class of one in 1968, Kotheimer is proud of the department which was recently ranked in the top 20 nationally by U.S. News and World Report. This year, 56 students will graduate from the Physician Assistant Studies program.

As the first graduate to become a PA, he said with humility, “Every time a new class graduates, I feel honored.”

All throughout 2025, the College of Health Sciences will be celebrating the 50th anniversary of our Physician Assistant Studies program.

Alumni, if you want to contribute to the history archive, contact us. And please plan to join us for the 50th Anniversary Gala on Oct. 25, 2025. Want to help make a difference? Consider donating to our student scholarship funds.

chs.uky.edu/physician-assistant-studies/50-years