JENNIFER BOULDEN

Dr. Michael Anreder, a transplant from New York, enjoys living in El Dorado in part because a unique scholarship program from Murphy Oil, Inc. will pay much or all of college tuition for his and wife Mary’s four children.

With three kids and another on the way, pathologist Michael Anreder is very glad he moved to El Dorado nine years ago.

That’s because his children, with wife, Mary — Alex, 13; Sophia, 4; Juliet, 2 and a baby due this summer — should qualify for free college tuition, thanks to the El Dorado Promise.

The Promise is a scholarship fund offered by Murphy Oil to graduates of the El Dorado Public Schools. Students who attend the El Dorado schools all 12 years can receive 100 percent of college tuition for four years. A sliding scale awards partial scholarships ranging from 65 to 95 percent for students who attended El Dorado schools since at least ninth grade.

The scholarship fund, announced last year by Murphy Oil, came as a surprise to Anreder.

“We’re very thankful to the Murphy Oil Corporation and (CEO) Claiborne Deming for their very generous $50 million scholarship to El Dorado High School graduates to help them with their college tuition,” Anreder said. “It will help out a lot of families here.”

Anreder has lived many places in the United States, but he never thought he would end up in Arkansas. El Dorado is a long way in distance and culture from his own hometown.

Anreder was born in New York City and grew up on Long Island. He graduated from Adelphi University, went to the Chicago Medical School, and then transferred to Upstate Medical Center in Syracuse, New York, where he earned his medical degree. He first sojourned south to do a year of radiology at Medical Center of South Carolina, but decided that he and radiology “just didn’t agree.”

Pathology and he, however, agreed quite a lot.

“I like that it’s a very biologic field,” Anreder explained. “You get all the tissue specimens, hold the lesion in your hand, cut tumors and hold them under the microscope. I really enjoy that. We see a whole bunch of interesting diseases.”

Anreder did four years of pathology residence at Tulane Medical Center in New Orleans. Board-certified in anatomic and clinical pathology, he thought he would stay in New Orleans and took a job for Memorial Medical Center. After a couple of years, however, Anreder realized he needed more opportunity for career growth and started looking around for another job.

There was an appealing job posting for an El Dorado, AR. “Arizona,” Anreder said, laughing now. “I thought Arizona sounded like a place I could live.”
When he got a call a few weeks later from Dr. Wayne Elliott in El Dorado, Arkansas, Anreder thought there had been some mistake, “I said, ‘I didn’t apply for a job in Arkansas!’ but then I soon figured out that I had,” he said.

The job still sounded good, so he came to interview. When he was offered a partner-track position, Anreder decided to take a chance on the small town.
“This practice was the first pathology practice in South Arkansas, started about 50 years ago by Dr. Kenneth Duzan, who saw a real need down here,” Anreder said.
Dr. Elliott retired, so now Anreder and his partner, Dr. Gary Anzalone, own the independent lab, Associated Pathologists Laboratory, and provide pathology services for several South Arkansas hospitals in El Dorado, Magnolia, Camden and Fordyce. Besides testing specimens for each hospital, Anreder and Anzalone also are medical directors for these hospitals’ labs, overseeing all their laboratory quality control.

“It stays a pretty busy practice. There are tons of regulations for hospital labs,” Anreder said. “It’s the most regulated part of the hospital. That work is still gratifying, but in a different way than testing tissues. I’ve grown a lot doing that side of things.”

He said there are many signs of progress in the communities he serves, including a new hospital under construction in Magnolia, and a convention center and new high school to be built in El Dorado. The South Arkansas Arts Center in El Dorado is home base for a growing arts community.

“It’s a lot more down-homey than other places I’ve lived,” Anreder reflected.
“It took a fair amount of adjustment, but I like it. It’s quiet.” Plus, he said, by visiting family in New York and New Orleans, he said the kids are still getting “a fairly cosmopolitan view of the world.”

A lifelong New York Giants fan — “I was thrilled when they won the Super Bowl” — Anreder is now also an avid Hogs fan. He keeps up with his teams and in what spare time he has, enjoys reading and being outdoors.

“My wife and I love the natural aspects of being in a small town and having so much wildlife nearby,” Anreder said. “We try to hike when we can. We go canoeing from time to time on the Buffalo River. We also have a little place up in Hot Springs. I like to boat on Lake Hamilton, water ski, snow ski when we can get away.”

That’s less and less frequently lately as the practice grows, but Anreder is still passionate about his work.

“I really enjoy being the doctors’ doctor,” Anreder explained. “Many times we’re the final word on a diagnosis. It’s very gratifying to help the other physicians, give them an accurate diagnosis so they can treat the patients.”



June 2008