Shrewsbury – Shrewsbury resident and Worcester physician Harvey G. Clermont, M.D., an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, has been honored by the Massachusetts Medical Society as the 2012 recipient of the Grant V. Rodkey Award, an honor recognizing a Massachusetts physician for outstanding contributions to medical education and medical students. He will receive the award, one of the Society's most prestigious, at the organization's annual meeting in Boston May 17.
Dr. Clermont is a board certified general and vascular surgeon who has practiced in Worcester since 1973. He is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and a former U.S. Navy Medical Officer.
In nominating him for the award, his colleagues remarked that “Dr. Clermont is known around UMass for two things, his unwavering commitment to the greater Worcester free clinics, and his endless support of student development and education. Having established much of the free clinic system in the Worcester area, Dr. Clermont continues to devote four nights a week to supporting these clinics, thereby getting countless uninsured patients the medical care they need. His attention to medical student education and professional development, both at and outside of the clinics, is even more outstanding. He is a passionate educator of young physicians and future health care providers.”
He is currently medical director of three free medical clinics: St. Anne's Free Medical Program in Shrewsbury and the Greenwood Street Medical Clinic and Akwaaba Free Medical Program in Worcester. Dr. Clermont also founded the Medical Clinic of the Central Massachusetts Shelter for Homeless.
The Rodkey Award is the latest of several honors Dr. Clermont has received. In 2006, he was awarded the Massachusetts Medical Society's Senior Volunteer Physician of the Year Award, recognizing a senior member of the society who has a dedication to volunteerism and to sharing experience and medical expertise. The Worcester District Medical Society selected him as its 2000 Community Clinician of the Year, and in 1991, he was the first recipient of the Worcester District Medical Society's A. J. Fitzpatrick Community Service Award. In 1994, he was honored as Surgical Teacher of the Year by the University of Massachusetts Medical Clinic. He has also been recognized by the Rotary Club of Quetzaltenango, Guatemala with its Humanitarian Recognition Award and by St. Vincent Hospital Department of Medicine with its Outstanding Medical Education Award.
While Dr. Clermont welcomes and celebrates the honors bestowed on him, he says his greatest pride comes from his family, which includes three natural born and seven adopted children, his marriage, which will reach its 50th anniversary later this year, and his medical, nursing, pharmacy, and physician assistant students, whom he treats as part of his family.
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