After 70 years, neurosurgeon will get his degree

David L. Kelly Jr. was one class shy of earning a Carolina undergraduate degree in spring 1955. He hoped to attend medical school. UNC’s School of Medicine was admitting qualified students through an accelerated program, so he applied.

He was accepted and became an accomplished neurosurgeon.

Now 90, Kelly ’59 (MD) sometimes wondered about finishing his bachelor’s degree. “I was the only person in my medical school class who didn’t have the degree. Quite frankly, I wanted to be an alumnus of the University of North Carolina,” he said. He was even willing to attend class on campus.

Chancellor Lee H. Roberts heard about Kelly’s long-held wish and asked Lauren DiGrazia, associate provost and University registrar, to look into fulfilling that wish. Her staff determined Kelly’s academic record matched 1955 requirements for a Bachelor of Science in chemistry.

His wish has been granted.

On Dec. 14, Kelly will put on a Carolina Blue cap and gown, then join younger graduates at Winter Commencement. His diploma will read “Class of 1955.”

From age 12, Kelly wanted to become a doctor. He took a step toward that goal after graduating as valedictorian of Winston-Salem’s Reynolds High School by enrolling at Carolina in fall 1953 with enough college credits to be a sophomore. He was named to the National Honor Society and Phi Beta Kappa. By spring 1955, 20-year-old Kelly needed one class to graduate.

Kelly (seen here on the far left; fourth row down) with his 1959 School of Medicine class. (Submitted photo)

He knew that Carolina’s medical school had open spots for superior students with three years of accredited college work. “I thought if I could gain two years in my professional career, that would be smart. That’s why I sought early entrance to medical school,” Kelly said.

The admissions board, concerned by his age, denied him admission. But the school’s dean, Dr. Walter Berryhill, heard about Kelly and wrote Reynolds principal Claude Joyner for a reference.  A week later, a phone call informed Kelly that he had been admitted.

“I didn’t know about Dr. Berryhill writing that letter until about 15 or 20 years later when Mr. Joyner visited our house for dinner,” Kelly said. “He brought the correspondence and showed it to me.”

Kelly wanted to become a family doctor. But during a third-year rotation he realized that family medicine patients often had multiple problems. “It occurred to me that to be a really good family physician, I would have to know an awful lot about cardiology, rheumatology and many other things. That didn’t appeal to me. I wanted to go into a field I could know from top to bottom and fix people,” Kelly said.

After researching medical and surgical specialties, he decided to find a neurosurgery residency. That year he also married Sarah “Sally” Kelly, who died in 2014. During their 56-year marriage, they had four children — Kathy Burnette, David Kelly ’84, Mary Brooks and Julia Ann Goins ’89.

“I’m indebted to Carolina’s medical school. My professors taught me firsthand. I learned techniques and teaching that I incorporated in training 48 surgery residents. They’ve practiced from Hawaii to the East Coast,” Kelly said.

Kelly completed residency training at Wake Forest University’s Bowman Gray School of Medicine/North Carolina Baptist Hospital and Peter Bent Brigham and Children’s Hospital, Harvard, and a neurophysiology fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis. He joined the Bowman Gray faculty in 1965. He became neurosurgery chair at Wake Forest Medical Center in 1978.

A specialist in treating brain tumor and vascular disorders of the brain, Kelly was president of several national and state neurosurgical organizations. He has received the UNC School of Medicine Distinguished Medical Alumnus Award (1990), Cushing Medal for extraordinary contributions to neurosurgery (1999) and Order of the Long Leaf Pine (2015) for exemplary service to North Carolina.