Dr. Richard G. Stuempfle

LOCK HAVEN — Dr. Richard Stuempfle, a local podiatrist, recently made a $50,000 gift to Temple University Fox School of Business to create the “Dr. Richard G. Stuempfle 55 Endowed Scholarship Fund.”

This scholarship will be awarded annually to a fourth year student enrolled at Temple who has demonstrated a combination of outstanding academic achievement and financial need. This is not Dr. Stuempfle’s first gift to the school, but this one will forever be a part of the institution.

“I wanted to give a senior student the opportunity of becoming a podiatrist. The endowment is something that I can leave to the school in my name as a gift for giving me a career of a lifetime,” he said.

Last November, Dr. Stuempfle celebrated his 60th year in practice.

He opened his practice in Lock Haven on Nov. 21, 1955 and he has no intentions of retiring.

“When I began my practice 60 years ago, it was a state law that you were only allowed to advertise the first month you were in practice,” Stuempfle recalled. “My practice was built on word of mouth.”

That practice, which occupies the ground floor of a two-story brick building where he and his late wife, DiAnn raised their three children, has seen thousands of patients and over a million sets of feet. He remembered his first week in practice he had only one patient.

“I love getting up in the mornings. I usually start on my paperwork at 5:30 a.m., then go into the office at 7:45 a.m. and work until 5 p.m.,” Stuempfle said.

But, it’s not just the hours at the office that have kept Stuempfle high functioning in the field of podiatry. Learning remains a critical part of his career. He long ago established a schedule of continuing education for himself and his staff members.

“It’s a much more sophisticated form of medicine today,” Stuempfle said. “Of course, my patients have taught me a great deal over the years.”

Dr. Stuempfle is a 50-year member of Lock Haven Rotary Club. He also is a member of Family Practice Board at Lock Haven Hospital and the Pennsylvania State Board of Podiatry. He’s past president, vice president and secretary/treasurer of PPMA, North Central Division; vice president of TUSPM Alumni Association; organizer of the Pa. Podiatric Medical Assistant Association, and past president of the Clinton County Shrine Club. He serves on the Lock Haven Board of Health, staff at Lock Haven Hospital and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Blue Shield Corporate Board.

He has also received several industry awards, including TUSPM Gallery of Success and the Pioneer of Podiatry Award at the Pennsylvania Podiatric House of Delgates at the PPMA. Additionally, Dr. Stuempfle was the keynote speaker at the White Coat Ceremony in 2007.

Dr. Stuempfle said he didn’t dream of becoming a podiatrist.

“My first choice was to be an airline pilot since I enjoy flying immensely,” Stuempfle said. It was his mother who gently urged him to consider podiatry as a career, he said, asking her, rhetorically, “who wants to smell feet all day,” Stuempfle said with a smile.