• Denver, CO
• Immediate Past President (Colorado Medical Society)
• Urologist (retired)

Award presented: April 13, 2019

Dr. Yakely’s medical career spans continents. A Navy veteran during the Viet Nam war, he treated wounded soldiers at the Charleston Naval Hospital. His connection to Asia resurfaced in the 1990s via Friendship Bridge, a group providing supplies and training to physicians in Viet Nam. He worked in Hanoi and Saigon, lecturing to urology physicians, and brought the first ureteroscope into the country. In 1997, he started offering prostate cancer screenings in the British Virgin Islands, ultimately training local doctors to perform prostate biopsies. He was elected president of the Colorado Medical Society, and he proudly helped reduce the uninsured rate from 16% to 6.4%. He also fought to preserve health care services to the 50% of children living below the poverty line. He currently is establishing a web site for retired physicians to connect them with service opportunities after they retire.