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Francis A. Madsen

AMICUS Hall of Honor Member/Heritage Society


Frank was born on January 6, 1931 at LDS Hospital. He doesn’t remember the event, but is willing to take his mother’s word for it. For six years

he lived across the street from Ogden High School while it was under construction. The brick piles were his playground. 

He returned to Salt Lake City when he was six years old. Frank attended Longfellow Elementary School (long gone), Bryant Junior High School and East High School where he played football, basketball (thus his two total knee replacements) and ran track. Frank graduated in 1948 as the valedictorian of his graduating class. 

Frank immediately entered the University of Utah and almost completed his undergraduate degree before serving an LDS mission to Ontario Canada. Upon his return he entered law school, completed his undergraduate degree and entered the Air Force ROTC program.

He completed his undergraduate degree in 1954, completed law school in 1955 (entering the Utah State Bar in 1955) and received an MBA in 1956 along with a commission in the Air Force. During all of this time, He worked in his family’s business, Madsen Furniture Company. 

After finishing school, Frank was ordered to Francis E. Warren Air Force Base, where he served three years as Assistant Staff Judge Advocate. Upon returning to Salt Lake in 1959 Frank participated in various family owned businesses while practicing corporate law. 

In 1976 Frank accepted Senator Orrin Hatch’s offer to be his chief of staff in Washington D.C. He acted in this capacity for eight years and then became Chief Counsel of the United States Senate’s Labor and Human Resources Committee for another four years. 

In 1988 Frank and his wife Constance were called to serve as the LDS mission president in Boston. Frank had previously served as bishop of three different LDS wards and a member of a stake presidency. Frank and Constance then returned to their home in Virginia and he then served as a Regional Representative in Cleveland, Ohio and New York. While living in Virginia he served on the Washington D.C. based public affairs Advisory Committee and the Foreign Affairs Advisory Committee for the LDS Church. He negotiated with the communist government of Hungary and other Eastern European nations to obtain legal status for the LDS church in those countries. Before returning to Salt Lake in 1995 he had obtained the desired status in most of Eastern Europe and then Russia. 

Upon returning to Salt Lake Frank served on a number of boards for charitable institutions. He was invited by David Wirthlin to serve on The Heart and Lung Research Foundation Board. Frank was then invited to serve on Intermountain Research & Medical Foundation Board for nine years with the assignment of working with The Heart and Lung Board and their Legacy of Life program while also helping to raise funds for the new Intermountain Medical Center. Upon completion of his Intermountain Research & Medical Foundation term he has continued to work with Legacy of Life having chaired the last two events. Intermountain Research & Medical Foundation expresses our deepest gratitude to Frank for his ongoing service and dedication.

 

Past Member Spotlights

 

Dr. Todd Allen

AMICUS Lifetime Member

 

Dr. Allen grew up in Bountiful, UT and pursued a degree in chemistry at the University of Utah before entering the medical program in 1991. Upon

graduation, he served his residency in emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh, where an appreciation for academic emergency medicine and the spirit of inquiry was formed. 

Following his residency, Dr. Allen completed a fellowship in academic emergency medicine at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital and the University of Sydney in Australia. While there, he came across a job opportunity with the Department of Emergency Medicine and Trauma Services at LDS Hospital and a chance to return home. 

Dr. Allen’s interests lie in clinical trauma research, academic emergency medicine, and bringing the techniques and ideas of the Pulmonary and Critical Care research, particularly the techniques of computerized bedside decision support to real-time operation in the emergency departments of both Intermountain Medical Center and LDS Hospital. 

Dr. Allen led a research project at Intermountain Medical Center and at LDS Hospital that shows both hospitals greatly reduced the number of sepsis-related deaths. “We have saved about 50 to 70 lives per year at those two institutions," he says. 

Over the past several years, Dr. Allen has received funding from Intermountain Research & Medical Foundation for research projects that have received local and national attention. He is currently the Vice-Chair of Intermountain Research & Medical Foundation’s Research Committee. 

Dr. Allen has been a generous donor and has reached the Lifetime level. Intermountain Research & Medical Foundation expresses our deepest gratitude to Dr. Todd Allen for his continuing support to the Foundation and his dedication to the Science of Medicine, the Spirit of Caring and the Miracle of Healing.

 

Luella Finlinson

AMICUS Pacesetter Member

 

Being the youngest child, Luella became familiar with serving the community by the example her mother, Rena D. Wheeler who was one of the three

founding women of the Cottonwood Maternity Hospital located in Murray, Utah. Rena Wheeler, Mary S. Cornwall and Amanda N. Bagley started a small maternity hospital in December 1924 known as the Cottonwood Maternity Hospital. Always trying to do for others, these women would travel from Murray to Granger and Hunter via horse & carriage to visit young mothers and their children. Luella would travel with her mother and was known as “Mothers little Relief Society girl.”

Traveling into Salt Lake City was a trek for most of the people who lived in Murray. Luella would watch her mother make burial clothing so the people of Murray would not have to travel into the city to make such a purchase for their deceased loved ones. She would also be by her mother’s side when the Murray Baby Clinic was opened. 

In 1963 the new Cottonwood L.D.S Hospital, a major medical facility, was dedicated and opened its doors as an acute general community hospital. With the opening of the new hospital, the Cottonwood Maternity Hospital closed and moved its new patients into the facility. The new hospital formed a governing board and asked Luella to serve on the board. 

Luella acquainted herself even more so by serving as a Ward Relief Society president, Stake Relief Society president and then a member of the General Relief Society board. She loved singing in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir because it gave joy to those who heard the choir sing. As a Board member of the new Cottonwood L.D.S Hospital, she worked diligently to raise funds for the hospital’s special needs and equipment. 

In 1975, recognizing that the South Salt Lake Valley was growing at a rapid rate, Luella was given the charge to help raise capital funds for a new facility, which would later be known as Alta View Hospital, and she did this by recruiting new members with great ease. 

For nearly 47 years, Luella has served in various volunteer roles with Intermountain Research & Medical Foundation and Amicus. She is a regular attendee at the Foundation’s events and activities. Luella has also been a generous donor and has reached the Pacesetter level. Intermountain Research & Medical Foundation expresses our deepest gratitude to Luella for her ongoing service and dedication.