Encyclopedia Dubuque
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Affiliated with the Local History Network of the State Historical Society of Iowa, and the Iowa Museum Association.
LAUBE, Paul J.
LAUBE, Paul J. (Dubuque, IA, 1910--Dubuque, IA, Feb. 12, 2001). Laube, an alumnus of the UNIVERSITY OF DUBUQUE graduated from the University of Iowa College of Medicine in 1936. He interned at Bellevue Hospital in New York and Lavon taught English and coached debate at Poughkeepsie High School. She worked at the main desk of New Haven Pospital in Connecticut while Paul was doing his residency. (1)
After Pearl Harbor, Pan American Airways offered Paul a job as flight surgeon on flights between Brazil and West Africa. He eagerly took the job knowing it might lead to an opportunity to practice medicine in China. Because the State Department, however, did not issue passports to wives who could not contribute to the war effort, Lavon took classes in nursing while caring for their child. After one year in Africa, Paul was transferred to Calcutta, India and Lavon was able to join him due to her training. Their son was left with old friends at Yale. (2)
With his wife, Lavon, Paul moved to China for the next six years. He provided medical care to the famous "Flying Tigers," American pilots who volunteered to fly combat missions against the Japanese for the Chinese. He also signed up to teach surgery at a Chinese medical school temporarily located in west China due to the occupation of its campus in the east by the Japanese. The war between the Chinese and Japanese finally forced the Laubes including their son who had rejoined the family and another son out of China in May, 1949. (3)
In the early 1950s. Dr. Laube and his family of six relocated his internal medicine practice from Detroit to Dubuque to join DUBUQUE INTERNAL MEDICINE. He opened his practice in 1952 along Locust Street, moved to Dodge Street in 1957 and relocated in 1981 to the campus of FINLEY HOSPITAL (THE). He retired in 1984 and later opened River Road Nursery in Dubuque. (4)
In the 1960s, Laube took a two-year sabbatical from his medical practice to serve as the president of the DUBUQUE AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. He also served as chairman of the University of Dubuque board of directors and was instrumental, with Walter PETERSON, in developing the MBA programs in Hong Kong, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Laube remained on the UD board after he retired and raised money for a bell tower as a memorial to his father, William C. LAUBE, a faculty member of the UD theological seminary. Paul Laube was also a member of the board of directors of the DUBUQUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA. (5)
In 1968 Laube was the recipient of the Civic Service Award from the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce. In 1999, he received the University of Iowa College of Medicine Distinguished Alumni Award for Service. (6) He became a charter member of The Finley Health Foundation Hall of Fame in 2000. As the chancellor of the university, he had been instrumental in forming The Finley Health Foundation and served as its first president. (7)
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Source:
1. Obituaries (Lavon Laube), Telegraph Herald, December 27, 2006, p. 32
2. Ibid.
3. Coyle, Erin, "UD Guiding Light Dimmed," Telegraph Herald, February 13, 2001, p. 3
4. "Dubuque Internal Medicine, A Proud Tradition," Telegraph Herald, September 15, 2008, p. 65
5. Coyle
6. Ibid.
7. "Finley Health Foundation Inducts 4 into Hall of Fame," Telegraph Herald, April 24, 2000, p. 21