WILMINGTON- The 2020 Tilton Award gala, which annually honors medical achievement in the state of Delaware, will take place as a dinner on Friday, October 16 from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. in the ballroom of the Tilton Mansion, home to The University and Whist Club. This year’s Tilton Award honoree is maternal-fetal medicine physician Garret H.G. Colmorgen, MD. Dr. Colmorgen is the Director of Obstetrics and Maternal-Fetal Medicine at Bayhealth Medical Center and the Chair of Bayhealth Medical Group Operating Council. He is also a Clinical Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine, and a Clinical Associate Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. Dr. Colmorgen was recruited to Delaware as the first maternal-fetal specialist in the First State, arriving in 1985 with the daunting task of improving Delaware’s infant mortality rate, which at the time was close to the worst in the nation. For thirty-five years Colmorgen has lead the charge, sharing his knowledge with the OBGyn community, helping train new physicians in his specialty, and tirelessly leading initiatives which have made a significant impact in changing the trajectory of Delaware’s infant and maternal mortality rate. For more than two decades, Colmorgen has worked tirelessly with the March of Dimes, including making regular trips to Legislative Hall in Dover to help share his valued perspective and insight as a clinician. He has raised millions of dollars in grant money and has been appointed to a variety of positions by almost every Governor for the past three decades. “He gives it all to his profession. He has made a mark and set a standard for care and statesmanship and stewardship that is unparalleled. Maternal health care in Delaware benefitted greatly when Garrett Colmorgen came to town,” says Medical Society of Delaware President Joseph J. Straight, MD. The Tilton Award, named after James Tilton, MD, a revolutionary war surgeon, founder and first President of the Medical Society of Delaware in 1789, and named the first Army Surgeon General of the United States by President Madison in 1813, is given annually for medical achievement to a Delaware physician who exhibits superior leadership, vision, innovation, and who has shown a life-long commitment to service for the betterment of patients, local community, and the nation. Previous recipients of the Tilton Award include Nicholas J. Petrelli, MD, Medical Director of the Helen Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute, Stephen R. Permut, MD, JD, who is presently a professor of Family and Community Medicine at the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University, and G. Dean MacEwen, MD, an endowed chair for the Department of Orthopedics of Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children. Nominees are vetted and selected by a panel comprised of board members from the Medical Society of Delaware, the Tilton Society of Delaware and the University and Whist Club. Each year the Tilton Award honoree receives a bronze bust of Tilton, commissioned to local sculptress Olga Nielsen. The Medical Society of Delaware has partnered with the Tilton Mansion home to the University and Whist Club, for the fourth year in a row, as has returning sponsor Brown & Brown Private Client Insurance. Individual tickets for the event are $75 per person and available by calling (302) 658-5125.