LAUSR

Dr. John D. Strain, a leader in the pediatric imaging community, died June 22, 2018, after a courageous battle with advanced-stage esophageal cancer. He was 67 years old. John is remembered as an innovator with the utmost common sense and perseverance. He would be delighted, grinning broadly, when complex ideas came to fruition, but he would be equally amazed when the simplest tasks would falter, when he would sigh and exclaim, “We’ll just keep at it!” He was limitless in his curiosity and energy. John was a Denver native who grew up in a loving family with three siblings, an influential physician father and an encouraging and supportive stay at-home mother. John’s father, Dr. James E. Strain, is an acclaimed pediatrician and former president of the American Academy of Pediatrics. John was a tremendous athlete. He began swimming at age 4, competed in his first out-of-state swim meet at age 8 and held every state record in freestyle throughout high school. He was a distinguished three-sport athlete, also playing football (all-state quarterback) and baseball (all-state pitcher). He even led the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) in strikeouts and earned run average (ERA) on a talented all-star baseball team. The Minnesota Twins were planning to draft him out of high school, but when his mom received the call, she simply told them not to bother because “Johnny was going to college!” John’s passion for baseball continued throughout his life, and he held season tickets for the Colorado Rockies from the beginning of the franchise. John attended the University of Northern Colorado on a baseball scholarship, earning a Bachelor of Science in chemistry. Upon graduation, he attended the University of Colorado School of Medicine, where his first love was surgery. After completing a surgical internship, he knew it was not a good fit and instead did emergencymedicine locums for a year. During that time, he honed his golf game and even competed in the PGA qualifying tournament in Chicago! John’s final elective in medical school was radiology. He credits the strong mentoring and teaching of Dr. Paul Siebert, chair of radiology at the Denver U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital, as the spark to his career. John discovered he had a keen eye, could identify abnormalities quickly, and remembered patients through their imaging. A monthlong rotation during residency at Denver Children’s Hospital (now Children’s Hospital Colorado) under Dr. Jack Campbell clarified his career path. Upon completing pediatric radiology fellowship training at Denver Children’s Hospital, he accepted his first and only job — at Denver Children’s Hospital. He was promoted to chairman after 5 years, a position he excelled in for the next 28 years. Through the Society for Pediatric Radiology (SPR), he was mentored by the best pediatric radiologists, including Drs. * Laura Z. Fenton [email protected]