Neiberg Legacy Grows Through Endowed Scholarship
Dr. Alan David Neiberg, a 1973 graduate of the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine and former faculty member, was a successful and respected internal medicine physician who practiced in the Lansing area for over four decades.
In his honor, the Dr. Alan D. Neiberg Endowed Scholarship has been created. The scholarship will be awarded to students who have completed significant work and/or have extensive life experience prior to acceptance into medical school.
Dr. Neiberg was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father Morris was a motorcycle policeman who died tragically when Dr. Neiberg was thirteen years old, and Dr. Neiberg had to grow up fast. He excelled in high school and graduated at age 16 while working a variety of jobs to support his mother and two siblings.
He was the first in his family to pursue a college degree, which he did while continuing to work to help support his family. Dr. Neiberg was awarded scholarships that paid for his entire undergraduate tuition, which enabled him to receive his BS degree from the University of Pittsburgh in three years. One of his side jobs in his college years was working in the lab of a psychology professor whose research area was the then exciting new area of behavioral science – running rats through mazes. When it became clear that there was no financial aid money for medical school, that professor suggested that he pursue doctoral work in Psychology and helped him obtain a graduate fellowship. He was subsequently awarded an MA and PhD in psychology from the University of Cincinnati. After several years as an Air Force research scientist, he continued his career as an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Michigan, Flint.
At 27, and with two young children, Dr. Neiberg entered the first class of MSU medical students in 1969. In 1976, Dr. Neiberg completed his Internal Medicine residency, which included three summers spent at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. That fall, he joined the highly respected medicine practice of Dr. Robert Stow and Dr. Jerome Cordes in Lansing, Michigan.
Coming to the College of Human Medicine in 1982 as a clinical professor, Dr. Neiberg taught countless residents, and while he often described himself as a “simple country doctor,” he was at the forefront of critical care medicine—well before it became a specialty.
Dr. Neiberg’s enthusiasm for medicine was inspirational and exemplary. He was passionate about teaching residents and medical students while playing a crucial role in early curriculum development for the college. Teaching the art and science of medicine and mentoring others were simply part of Dr. Neiberg’s DNA, and he believed he carried a responsibility to those who followed in the practice of medicine.
Of his numerous accolades and accomplishments, what he was proudest of, was establishing mid-Michigan's first subacute rehabilitation unit and orchestrating a partnership between Mary Free Bed Rehabilitation Hospital in Grand Rapids and Sparrow Hospital in Lansing.
Dr. Neiberg served as associate director of Sparrow's rehabilitation department for over 25 years and was a fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), the American College of Emergency Medicine (ACEM) and the American College of Legal Medicine. He was a member of Sigma Xi, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the New York Academy of Science.
In 2010, Dr. Neiberg was named Sparrow Hospital's Physician of the Year at an annual event, where he received two standing ovations by hundreds of his professional colleagues. Watch his speech here.
His time working for the United States Air Force in the Aerospace Medical Research lab at Wright-Patterson base in Dayton, Ohio, sparked his passion for aviation. Dr. Neiberg was an accomplished, instrument-rated private pilot. In his twenty-plus years as an aviator, he often volunteered to provide free air transportation to medical centers through compassion flight organizations, for patients unable to afford commercial travel.
Dr. Neiberg deeply valued the relationships with his office patients and their families. He shared a strong mutual respect with his office colleagues and staff. Dr. Neiberg retired from practice in 2021 due to declining health.
Though his path to medical school was delayed due to financial challenges, Dr. Neiberg persisted. The Dr. Alan D. Neiberg Endowed Scholarship will help remove those barriers for future Spartan MDs, who have, as Dr. Neiberg did, all the passion and drive to become a physician, yet lack the financial means to achieve a medical degree.
By fulfilling the dream of becoming a physician for others, Dr. Neiberg’s legacy will live on through generations of future physicians.
To learn more about leaving your own legacy at the MSU College of Human Medicine, email Associate Director of Development Marci Muller or call (616) 234-2611.