Dr. Glenn Shepard was raised on
a farm in eastern
Virginia. He attended the University of Virginia on an academic
scholarship and majored in psychology. As an undergraduate, he lettered
in wrestling for three years in a row. Then, he went on to become the
only person in UVA history to letter in wrestling again in his sophomore
year in medical
school.
After completion of med school at UVA,
he went to Vanderbilt where he completed his residency in general and
cardiovascular surgery. He spent two years in the Army at the Ft. Gordon Army
Hospital in Augusta, Georgia and The Second Surgical Hospital in An Khe,
Vietnam.
While in Vietnam, he wrote his first work of fiction, Surge, which is on his back burner of
works to dig out of the attic and publish, with major revisions, in the future.
He trained in plastic
surgery at Duke University, becoming board certified in General Surgery and
Plastic surgery. He opened his own Surgery Center in Eastern Virginia, where he
worked for 23 years, mostly in a solo practice, before joining a large, plastic
surgery group.
For 28 years, he founded and directed The Peninsula
Cranio-Facial deformities clinic that was staffed by volunteer medical, dental,
social services, psychology, and speech pathology experts. The group treated
over five hundred patients with cleft lips and palates, as well as a variety of
deformities of the face and hand.
Shepard founded,
funded, and directed the Riverside Microvascular Research Lab, in which he
studied the basic science of wound healing, the development of of cleft palates,
new techniques in palatal repair, and the regeneration of injured fingernails. He
published numerous scientific publications on his work in the lab and clinic.
After the massive Earthquake in Haiti in January, 2010, Dr. Shepard emerged from retirement and joined the Notre Dame Hospital unit in Leogane, Haiti for a 10 day rotation. His empathy for the people and their problems as well as his admiration for the contributions of time and talent from medical personnel from all over the world greatly inspired his second novel, Relief Aid, Haiti.
All his adult life,
he has studied and collected American Art of the Hudson River genre. Also, he
collects paintings of the prominent Virginia artist, Barclay Sheaks. Currently,
he's writing the authorized biography of the artist.
For six years, he worked
with two high school wrestling programs, one that was a perpetual state
champion, and the other, a perpetual runner-up in the state meet. He
wisely quit after a heavy weight wrestler broke three of his ribs.
Apart from gaining pleasure
from writing as his primary hobby for the past twelve years, he is an avid fly
fisherman, spending much of his free time fishing on the Chesapeake Bay and at his
farm near Williamsburg. There he enjoys nature hikes, observing and
photographing the abundant deer population, and always searching for new bird
species that might wander off their migratory paths into his view.
Dr. Shepard
has also become involved in aquaculture and raises hybrid rock fish, rainbow
trout, and fresh water shrimp. While this is not yet a profitable
enterprise, it provides a delicious seafood addition to his annual Bluegrass
and Barbecue Party. While he has been known to play a mean banjo, he
prefers to provide himself as an audience for the many and more talented
singers and pickers in his area.
