The Classen Family

Theodore Classen was the son of Polish immigrants. He went straight from high school into medical school under a name he had to change. According to his son Brent, schools at the time were turning away Eastern Europeans. So Klasinski became Classen.

The new surname got Theodore through the door. It didn’t get him into an operating room. Unable to secure surgical privileges elsewhere, he built his own hospital, Brentwood, so he would have somewhere to work.

And work he did. As many as seven major surgeries in a day, six and a half days a week.

From a young age, Brent went in on weekends to help clean his father’s office. “His work ethic imprinted me,” he says.

It imprinted the rest of the family, too. Brent’s three brothers became osteopathic physicians; a sister married one. The late Roger Classen, DO, spent more than 45 years at the hospital founded by his father, where Roger was a prominent surgeon and a devoted educator. He also led the Brentwood Foundation board.

Brentwood Hospital eventually became Cleveland Clinic South Pointe Hospital. Brent, who founded and still owns a skilled nursing facility carrying the Brentwood name, sits on the boards of both South Pointe and the Brentwood Foundation.

The foundation’s giving focuses on osteopathic education. It has funded six chairs, along with community grants, medical school scholarships, the Classen Family Center for Graduate Medical Education and, in Roger’s name, a surgical suite and a clinical skills lab. The goal, Brent says, is to create opportunities in osteopathic medicine for current and future caregivers and keep them connected as healthcare evolves and the world changes.

Theodore, the family patriarch, died in 2005. He was 88.

Take a step back and you might notice a profound symmetry. The man who changed his name to get into medicine and built his own hospital ultimately continues to pave pathways for others to follow.

Would he approve of this legacy?

“Yes,” Brent says. “Very much so.”