Lawrence J. Hergott, M.D.
Emeritus Professor of Medicine
Senior Scholar in Creative Writing
Center for Bioethics and Humanities
University of Colorado School of Medicine
Denver, Colorado
Dr. Hergott was born and raised in the tiny town of Le Seuer, Minnesota (population 3,500 and the home of the Jolly Green Giant and the Mayo family). Dr. Hergott received his undergraduate degree from St. John’s University in Minnesota, where he played college football and baseball. He attended medical school at the University of Minnesota and interned at Hennepin County General Hospital in Minneapolis. Dr. Hergott then served for two years as a General Medical Officer in the U.S. Air Force. He completed his Internal Medicine Residency and Cardiology Fellowship at the University of California, Davis.
Dr. Hergott was in private practice for one year in Yakima, Washington, and then moved to Denver, Colorado, where he was an invasive and interventional cardiologist with Kaiser Permanente for 19 years. In 1999, he joined the faculty of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, and in February of 2016 Dr. Hergott moved to the University’s Center for Bioethics and Humanities.
Dr. Hergott has received numerous clinical and teaching awards. Included are the Kaiser Permanente Award for Outstanding Clinical Care, a Career Teaching Award from the Exempla-St. Joseph Hospital Internal Medicine Residency Program 1980-2000, the University of Colorado Cardiology Fellows’ Outstanding Teacher Award in 2001, and the University of Colorado Internal Medicine Residents’ Outstanding Teacher Award in 2005.
Dr. Hergott’s scholarly interests include writing essays and poems, largely about how physicians and their loved ones lead the medical life. His publications have appeared in Annals of Internal Medicine, JAMA, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, The Denver Post, The Business Journal, the University of Edinburgh School of Divinity Journal The Expository Times, and the New England Journal of Medicine (photographs), among others.
Two writing awards have been established in Dr. Hergott’s name: one at the University of Colorado and another co-sponsored by Southern Methodist University and the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
Dr. Hergott has participated in many service-oriented activities, including building homes with Habitat For Humanity in South Africa. Dr. Hergott is the cardiology consultant for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. His work at the Denver Zoo has been featured on BBC World News.
