Dr. Donald W. Hendrickson, 75, former associate dean and pathologist at Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine, died of heart failure Wednesday, Dec. 3, in his Indian Head Park home. Born in Brazil, Ind., Dr. Hendrickson graduated from high school in three years and was class valedictorian. In two years, he completed his bachelor of science in pre-medicine studies at Indiana State University in Terre Haute. He finished his medical education at the Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1949, followed by an internship and residency in internal medicine at Doctors Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. In 1954 he went into private practice as a cardiologist. He had met his future wife, Laura, now deceased, a secretary in the medical offices, and they married in 1949. Dr. Hendrickson enlisted in the Army but did not tell the recruiters he was a doctor, said his son, Steve. “He wanted [the other recruits] to view him as an average Joe,” his son said. From 1955 to 1957 he served in the counterintelligence corps in Maryland. After his discharge he decided to switch medical careers and completed a residency in pathology at Detroit Osteopathic Hospital in Highland Park, Mich. From 1960 to 1975, he was a pathologist and director of laboratories in Saginaw Osteopathic Hospital in Michigan. The family moved to Indian Head Park when he took a position as professor of pathology at Chicago Osteopathic in 1975. In addition to teaching, he was also a pathologist at the hospital until 1987, said his daughter, Lisa Theis. “People listened to him,” she said. “He was a great teacher who could explain things the way people could understand it.” In 1987 he became associate dean of the college until he took a medical retirement in 1990. Dr. Hendrickson was the past president, fellow and a diplomat of the American Osteopathic College of Pathologists and founding president of the Michigan Osteopathic Pathology Society. Other survivors include his wife, Dolores; another daughter, Michele; and four grandchildren. Services were held.
