Professor of Surgery Dr. Brett Arnoldo chose to pursue a medical career later than most physicians. Initially, he earned a master’s degree in fine arts – his media were painting and drawing – with a goal to become the next Picasso.

But, I fell in love and recognized I needed to make a living, Dr. Arnoldo said.

After a few years of soul searching following graduate school, he decided to attend medical school in his early 30s. An ambitious person, Dr. Arnoldo was seeking both a challenge and a fulfilling career that would serve a greater good. Once he established medicine as his focus, he quickly gravitated to surgery. As he trained, burn surgery excited him the most.

For me, there are a lot of similarities between artwork and the surgical career, Dr. Arnoldo said. Everyone thinks being a surgeon is all in your hands, but no – it’s in your eyes. It’s looking at something and knowing what to do with it. The art really comes in handy with that. You train your hands to do what they need to do, but I think it’s more visual than it is in your hands.

In 2003, Dr. Arnoldo was recruited to UT Southwestern by Dr. Gary Purdue, a surgical faculty member who died in a motorcycle accident in 2010. Dr. Arnoldo had previously trained as a fellow under Dr. Purdue. The doctors, who were both from New York, made a quick connection.

He was more than just a surgeon – he was just a great human being, Dr. Arnoldo said about Dr. Purdue.

Now Dr. Arnoldo will help carry on Dr. Purdue’s legacy. This year Dr. Arnoldo was appointed the Laurel and Gary F. Purdue, M.D. Chair in Burn Care. The endowment is also named for Dr. Purdue’s widow.

I know Gary would be ecstatic that Brett has been awarded our endowment. His compassion, commitment, and skills as a burn doctor exemplify everything Gary believed in, Laurel Purdue said. Gary spent his career at Parkland Memorial Hospital doing what he loved, and he saw himself in Brett. Our family is thrilled that Brett continues to change lives daily at Parkland and carries a part of Gary’s legacy with him.

Dr. Arnoldo said he intends to use the endowment to mostly support research led by early career investigators or fellows. Dr. Arnoldo is particularly focused on training future burn surgeons because of a shortage in the specialty. At a recent American Burn Association meeting, the group identified approximately 300 burn surgeons in North America.

My legacy will be to try to identify the next generation of burn surgeons and develop them the way Dr. Purdue developed me so they can make the specialty better than it is now – and I know they will, Dr. Arnoldo said.

Dr. Arnoldo, now 61, said he’ll likely continue performing surgery for the next decade. After that, he’d like to continue as a mentor to other surgeons.

Although he forged a nontraditional path to medicine, Dr. Arnoldo said many seeds were planted along the way that led him to his career. Determining your motivation is an important principle to live by, Dr. Arnoldo said, otherwise it is easy to get sidetracked. He said his mentor set that example.

I saw Gary Purdue model that and it’s one of the things that attracted me to working with him. He was just a really, really good human being. I still miss him; I still think about him a lot, Dr. Arnoldo said.