Introduction of François M. Abboud.

Frank Abboud of Iowa Frank Abboud is so intertwined with Iowa, that in American academic medicine, when one thinks of Iowa, one thinks of Frank Abboud, and vice versa. What is it about this place that many consider, if at all, only when shuttling at 32,000 feet between the paragons of academia on our coasts? It is quite fitting that this Iowan receives the Kober Medal in this particular year, 2009. For it is this year that Barack Obama became President after the people of Iowa launched him on his amazing journey. President Obama said that only in America was his life story possible. The same is true for Frank Abboud. He has told his grandchildren (Figure 2), “There is no place on earth that would have extended the arms of opportunity to embrace your grandparents as fully, as fairly, and as freely as we have been.” That opportunity for fair treatment is true of this country, and it is true of Iowa. Witness, for example, the recent unanimous decision by the Iowa Supreme Court to allow same-sex marriage; they said it was an issue of fairness.