The Dr. Thomas A. Dooley Award - 2016: Peter J. Daly, M.D. ’82

2016: Peter J. Daly, M.D. ’82

For his dedication to providing medical care for the poor in Honduras, Peter J. Daly, M.D. ’82 is presented with the 2016 Dr. Thomas A. Dooley Award.

After graduating from Notre Dame, Daly received his medical degree from Mayo Medical School in Rochester, Minnesota, followed by an orthopedic surgical residency at Mayo Clinic. He completed a shoulder fellowship at Harvard University in 1992 and then joined a private practice in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Daly’s desire to provide care for the needy began in 1994 as a volunteer orthopedic surgeon for St. Mary’s Free Health Clinics in Minneapolis/St. Paul. Since 2001, his main work has been in addressing the public health disparity of surgical disease burden in global health. Serving initially with Orthopedics Overseas in St. Lucia, West Indies, he subsequently combined his desire to serve with his family and still apply his skills as an orthopedic surgeon by founding a new surgery center on the grounds of a Catholic orphanage (Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos) in Honduras, Central America.

Beginning in 2003, Daly built, equipped, and staffed the Holy Family Surgery Center, a first world, state of the art surgical facility whose only mission is to address surgical global health disparities for the poor. Since its opening in 2008, the facility has provided more than 12,000 consultations and 1,700 surgeries to those who would never have experienced healing otherwise.

“I humbly accept this honor on behalf of my family, and the poor we serve. We need them more than they need us,” Daly said.