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Dr. Hap Lutter, surgeon who lived a full life
He was a champion for children as an orthopedic surgeon and volunteer physician. He also was a marathoner.
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Cross-country skiers who will participate in the 2011 Junior Olympics in Minneapolis will glide along trails at Theodore Wirth Park recently named in honor of Dr. Lowell (Hap) Lutter, a highly respected orthopedic surgeon who dedicated his career to helping children with brittle-bone diseases and muscular dystrophy. He specialized in foot and ankle surgery and treated many runners and athletes during his career, which began in the 1970s at the St. Anthony Orthopedic Clinic and ended in 2002 when he retired from St. Paul Foot and Ankle, a clinic he founded.
Lutter, who was a longtime marathoner and skier, was on hand Oct. 2 when the trails were dedicated to him and his wife of 47 years, Judy Mahle Lutter, and as Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak declared it "Hap and Judy Lutter Day."
Two days later, he died of bladder cancer at his home in St. Paul. He was 70.
Lowell Lutter graduated from Grinnell College in Iowa in 1961 and the University of Chicago Medical School in 1965. He served as a captain in the Air Force for two years before completing his residency at the University of Minnesota. He completed a fellowship with the U.S. Health, Education and Welfare Department in Tunisia, a country he returned to 34 times in his career as a volunteer to train doctors and treat patients in the north African nation, said his son Reid, of St. Paul.
Lutter was a champion for children during his career, which included serving as a volunteer physician at Gillette Children's Hospital and the Muscular Dystrophy Clinic at University of Minnesota Medical Center Fairview.
"He was known as a fantastic orthopedic surgeon and for how much he did for the community," said Dr. Chris Coetzee, an orthopedic surgeon at the University of Minnesota. "He was an amazing guy."
He was editor of the Foot and Ankle International for 12 years and wrote a monthly column for it. Using his "wonderful sense of humor, he put himself out there with things that were hurtful or difficult for him. He encouraged readers not to be so focused on money and career," said Judy Lutter, past president of the Melpomene Institute for Women's Health Research.
Despite long hours in the clinic, Lutter found time to run more than 30 marathons, travel, take up fly-fishing and enjoy bike riding and nordic skiing.
In retirement, Lutter took up sculpting. He took classes and gave lectures to other art students at the University of Minnesota. His works were featured in a juried show put on by the Minnesota Sculptors Association, and one of his creations from junk metal, "Nokomis Monsters," won an honorable mention at last year's Aquatennial, Judy said.
"He figured out how to live a life that was incredibly full," she said.
In addition to his wife and son Reid, Lutter is survived by another son, Parke, of New York City; a daughter, Wendy Lutter, of St. Paul; two brothers, Glenn of Libertyville, Ill., and Leonard of Ann Arbor, Mich.; a sister, Sue Haggerty, of LaCrescent, Minn., and four grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 10 a.m. Nov. 1 at the Weyerhaeuser Memorial Chapel at Macalester College, 130 Macalester St., St. Paul.
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