Homer Stryker

Stryker was born in Wakeshma Township, Michigan on November 4, 1894, later graduating from Athens High School as part of the class of 1913.

Stryker earned his teaching certificate from Western State Normal School in 1916 and taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the Keweenaw Bay school system in the Upper Peninsula before serving in the American infantry in France during World War I.

Medical school

Stryker returned to Michigan to study medicine. Stryker was admitted into the University of Michigan medical school in 1919; however, the medical school required passing a foreign language exam before full admittance, which Stryker failed. To be able to afford medical school tuition, Stryker taught at a school in Grand Ledge, Michigan, he coached football, basketball and baseball, worked as a barber, and pitched for the Grand Ledge semi-pro baseball team for two years. He got tutoring in French from a fellow student, and was later able to begin his medical studies in 1921 after earning enough for the tuition and passing the foreign language exam. He earned his Doctor of Medicine degree from the University of Michigan Medical School in 1925 and interned at the University Hospital. Stryker began his medical practice in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and established offices in Borgess Hospital, where he was the only orthopedic surgeon in the region.

Stryker married his former French tutor, Mary Jane Underwood, in 1924. They had a son, Lee, and three grandchildren, Pat Stryker, Jon Stryker, and Ronda Stryker. Ronda Stryker currently sits on the governance board at Stryker Corporation.