Romrell, who also is associate dean for curriculum development and evaluation, arrived at the College of Medicine not long before members of the Class of 2012. He and his new students made a quick and lasting connection.

To show appreciation for Romrell’s teaching, first-year student Jared Rich created a piece of artwork depicting an outstretched, gloved hand reaching for the hand of a cadaver. Students commonly refer to the cadavers as their first patients in medical school training.

Class of 2012 members signed the artwork and presented a framed copy to Romrell, who spent 37 years teaching at the University of Florida College of Medicine and Harvard Medical School prior to joining the faculty at the FSU College of Medicine last spring.

“It really does an extraordinary job of expressing the connection being made with people who give their bodies for the advancement of medical science,’’ Romrell said. “That connection starts to develop, particularly, when you touch a patient’s hands. You begin to understand that they are real and you recognize that they have given their body for you to learn.’’

Beneath the painted hands, Rich's artwork contains the Latin phrase "Hic locus est ubi mors gaudet succurrere vitae" ("This is the place where death delights to help the living").

The decision to donate one’s body to medical science is an act of selflessness for which the donor won’t get to hear a word of thanks from the beneficiaries. First-year students at the College of Medicine, however, annually honor their ‘first patients’ from the summer clinical anatomy course with a memorial service in which they express gratitude through written notes and letters.

Like Rich, first-year student Allison Poimboeuf found another way to express her emotions. She wrote an editorial that appeared in the FSU student newspaper, the FSView. Thanks from a grateful student