2022 John Sealy School of Medicine Alumni Association Legacy Award Recipient
Created by the John Sealy School of Medicine Alumni Association in 2022, this award honors and recognizes posthumous alumni who have demonstrated a distinguished career in medicine or academics and continue to inspire future generations. This award comes with a monetary value that is given to the recipient’s specialty department within UTMB to be used for emerging needs and priorities.
About Dr. Reneau
At his 50th reunion of the UTMB Class of 1965, Dr. Reneau shared these words “I may be the only doctor in Texas to have graduated from UT as an undergraduate, played basketball at UT, graduated with a Doctor’s Degree from UT Medical Branch in Galveston, taught a course in Health Sciences at UT, and had the role of Team Physician at UT during The Glory Years from 1967-72 with Darryl Royal.”
Dr. Reneau will be forever linked to UT/Austin by being the doctor on duty working triage in the ER at Brackenridge Hospital in Austin when Charles Whitman shot 44 people from the UT Tower. He called it a “war zone.”
In 2009, Dr. Reneau was interviewed telling his story as part of the hospital’s 125th anniversary celebration (reference Brackenridge Hospital Historical Archives). In 2016, on the 50th anniversary of this tragedy, he was interviewed by local news discussing the role he and his medical team played in saving lives.
In 1972, Dr. Reneau was approached by Dr. Robert Anderson, cardiologist at Brackenridge Hospital, to help him start Austin’s first Family Practice residency program. He chaired the organization committee’s first year and was instrumental in establishing Family Practice departments in three local hospitals forming the first Austin Family Practice residency as part of the Central Texas Medical Foundation. He actively served in leadership positions with local, state, and national medical and family practice associations.
Dr. Reneau practiced medicine from 1965-2015. Those who knew him said he never changed from the optimistic, caring, generous man he was as a young doctor; loved by his patients and respected by his colleagues. His only regret was retiring.
Dr. Reneau died August 23, 2020 at the age of 88.