On Wednesday, March 24th, faculty and staff from the Department of Orthopaedics came together to celebrate the retirement of two of our fondest staff members: Carole Pennington and Louise Dillard.

Carole began working with Dr. David Attarian as his staff assistant in 1999. Only Carole was not just his staff assistant. During the celebration, Dr. Attarian reflected on how Carole not only helped him care for his patients and maintain organization at work, but helped him with his family. Mrs. Attarian explained, “There were two thing I hated hearing from David. The first was ‘Carole’s not coming in today,’ and the second was ‘Carole’s on vacation.'” Carole did such an exemplary job of working with Dr. Attarian, that in 2014, she began working with Dr. Michael Bolognesi as well.

Louise joined the department in 1997, and worked with Dr. William Hardaker and the GME Team, as well as with Dr. Richard Goldner as his staff assistant. Louise remembered fondly that, “…being a staff assistant was something that I always wanted to do as long as I can remember. And working with the doctors at Duke has been a wonderful experience.” Wendy Thompson, one of the department’s Medical Student, Residency, and Fellowship Program Coordinators, remembered how Louise was always there to help them during the tough times, and will be very missed by everyone in the department.

Michael Gagnon, Chief Administrative Officer, left Carole and Louise with the following parting words: “The arms of Orthopaedic Surgery are long. When you leave Duke Orthopaedics, know that if you ever need something, anything at all, we will be here for you. Because you are a part of the Duke Orthopaedics family.”

While Carole and Louise will be missed, we wish them the best of luck in retirement and all of their future endeavors.