Dr. Stephen Fealy ’91 Recalls “Magical” Places on Campus

Dr. Stephen Fealy ’91, VPS’95 is a sports medicine orthopedic surgeon at the Hospital for Special Surgery who specializes in injuries and associated surgeries of the shoulder, knee and elbow. He completed his orthopedic surgery residency and Sports Medicine Fellowship at HSS.

Fealy was a pitcher for Columbia baseball; throughout his career, his passion for baseball has driven his involvement with the Major League Baseball Players Association, where he is now an orthopedic surgery and sports medicine consultant. He is also a co-creator of MLB’s PitchSmart initiative, an ongoing collaborative effort to minimize overuse injuries in youth sports and baseball.

Fealy is an active member of many professional organizations, including the American Orthopaedic Society for Sports Medicine, the Arthroscopy Association of North America, the American College of Sports Medicine, the American Shoulder & Elbow Society and the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons.

He and his wife, Kristen Gesswein BC’90, have three children: sons, James ’28 and Stephen III, and daughter, Campbell.

What were you like when you arrived at Columbia?

I was an overeager sort of all-American boy next door who found himself in the deep end of the pool really quickly. I was the first person in my family to go to college, and I came from a very sheltered, parochial background — I went to Catholic schools, including an all-boys high school. The first time I was ever on a plane was when I was a College junior! I was not ready for the big, wide world of New York City.

I had always been at the top of my class, so when I got to Columbia I thought it was going to be a cakewalk. And then I got my butt kicked. The other kids were so smart, and so much better educated, coming from boarding schools and international schools I’d never heard of. My suitemates were from Malaysia, which I probably couldn’t have even found on a map.

What do you remember about your first-year living situation?

My parents were dead set against the idea of my living on a floor where there would be girls. That was like, tantamount to a crime. There was one floor on Carman that was single sex, called The Mezzanine, so I was relegated there. It was slightly above the entranceway, and my bedroom window looked out over the Beta Theta Pi house on 114th. The brothers would harass us all the time — anytime a girl walked into our dorm room, our phone would ring; they had us on speed dial. When we moved our son into Carman last year, I saw the landing of the elevator on 11 has a sweeping view of Low Library. I was like, “Your experience is better than mine already.”

What Core Curriculum class or experience do you most remember, and why?

It comes back to my upbringing: It was when we read from the Bible in Lit Hum. I had read the Old Testament and the New Testament in high school, but now we were reading the Bible as literature and that really messed with my head. Because I was all, “This is the word of God — this isn’t literature. This is what happened.” And all my classmates were like, “Oh, that’s cute.” I was really in over my head. But it was interesting, because once I understood what was happening, it was total paradigm shift. It was almost like I was learning a new language.

Did you have a favorite spot on campus, and what did you like about it?

There were two spots. Obviously, The Steps on a beautiful spring or fall day are magical, but the funny thing is, they’re not comfortable! You could always MacGyver it with a cushion or something but at the end of the day, it’s granite. Then, I was an RA in Hartley and Wallach, so the other place I really loved was Van Am Quad. We’d have ball games and snowball fights there, and that rotunda was my special little happy place.

What, if anything, about your College experience would you do over?

I would pace myself a little more. I wanted to go to medical school, and there was so much I had to do. It really kind of front-loaded my ability to take classes that I found interesting. Once I was accepted into medical school, I was finally able to take things like art history and geology and other classes I didn’t know were out there, because I had been so busy achieving check marks — getting things done so I could get into medical school and then on to the next step. I had a lot of fun, but I wish I could have enjoyed the roses a little bit more.