PIONEERING SPIRIT

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Apr 13, 2008 | by MELISSA CASSUTT

"For someone to become president of the board of surgery outside the world of academics -- that's tough," Marta said.

"Being a woman -- that's especially tough."

She's been retired for almost three months now.

Her husband says she's adjusted well, though Rothhammer admits it took awhile to stop listening for a ringing telephone or beeping pager.

"I've not had so much sleep since I was a teenager," Rothhammer said.

She's been on call since she was 25.

"We'd go away for even a few days and Ami would call the hospital to see how a patient's doing," said Bill Perry, her husband.

"Being a nonphysician, we don't realize the stress physicians are under -- particularly surgeons. You could tell after a few days she was almost a different person."

She has time to read now.

Or practice the violin, an instrument she once played in the Pikes Peak Philharmonic.

Or plan an RV trip along the Columbia River with Perry, whom she married in October.

She has time to live.

"She kept saying, 'I'm going to retire in three to five years,' and she's been saying that for the past 15 years," Martin said.

Some wish it was still talk.

"We already miss her in the OR," Chambers said.

"I really wasn't teasing her when I said I hate to see her go."

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0152 or melissa.cassutt@gazette.com TIMELINE

1937-- Rothhammer is born in Alamosa. 1955 -- Graduates from Central High School in Pueblo, accepts a full-ride scholarship to the University of Colorado in Boulder, where she graduates with a bachelor's degree in chemistry. 1960 -- Her first child, Joe, is born. 1961 -- Rothhammer is accepted into the first female class at Jefferson Medical School in Philadelphia. 1963 -- Her second child, Bill, is born. For Bill and subsequent children, Rothhammer takes only a week off after delivery. 1966 -- She finishes an internship at the University of Colorado Denver. The same year, her third child, Beth, is born. 1969 -- Her fourth child, Ann, is born. 1970 - - Finishes a surgical residency at UCD. Moves to Washington, D.C. 1972 -- Returns to Colorado, where she helps found the Penrose Emergency Physicians' Corporation. The group designs a program that put doctors in the emergency room 24/7. 1972 -- Begins the Colorado Springs Surgical Associates with her first husband. 1978 -- Becomes treasurer of the Colorado Medical Society, a nonprofit educational association. In the early 1980s, the CMS executive committee begins a side project, COPIC, a liability insurance company for physicians that is still in business today. 1980 -- Starts her own practice. 1986 -- Accepted into the Western Surgical Association, an exclusive members-only association dedicated to education and surgical advancement. 1999 -- Becomes the first female chair of governors for the American College of Surgeons, a nonprofit educational association. 2000 -- Becomes the first female president of the Western Surgical Association. 2002 -- Becomes the vice president of the American College of Surgeons. January 2008 -- Retires.