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Get the beautiful
smile you’ve always
wanted through
the “magic” of a
crown lengthening
procedure at
Joseph R. Nemeth
DDS & Associates.

Alex Kornienko

Change Your Smile,
Change Your Life!

BEFORE

Dr. Gary Kaplan with two of his office staffers, Latoria Howard and Robyn Lovejoy

Father’s Footsteps

Podiatrist still operates the Detroit
office his dad started in 1943.

AFTER

This dramatic change is the result
of a gum reshaping procedure.
No other procedures or veneers
were used. Drs. Nemeth and
Katranji offer many procedures
to enhance a smile. For a smile
consultation, call 248-357-3100.

Robin Schwartz | Contributing Writer

H

Dr. Joseph Nemeth as he appears on National Public Television.

29829 Telegraph Road, Suite 111
Southfi eld, Michigan 48034
248.357.3100 I www.drnemeth.com

2000300

e calls himself the “Detroit
Podiatrist” and it’s a title Dr.
Gary Kaplan has undoubt-
edly earned. For more than 40 years,
he has treated patients at a modest
office building on Gratiot Avenue on
Detroit’s east side. His father, the late
Dr. Earl G. Kaplan, first purchased the
building and started his practice there
in 1943.
“My dad is my hero. I don’t know
where I’d be without him,” Kaplan says.
“He’s the one who taught me how to be
a doctor and a foot and ankle surgeon,
and probably made my career for me
as he did for my two brothers — and
everybody in podiatry — because he
was the catalyst behind it.”
The elder Kaplan is considered one
of the founding fathers of podiatry.
Family members say he held virtually
every office in almost every organiza-
tion that existed in his field of exper-
tise. He was the founder and chief of
staff of Civic Hospital in Detroit, the
first podiatry hospital and residency
program in the world.
A May 1957 mention of Dr. Earl G.
Kaplan, found in the Detroit Jewish
News Foundation’s Davidson Digital
Archive, refers to the practice as “chi-
ropody” before podiatry became what
it is today. Earl died in 1994.
“Back in the day, we had to bring
our standards of education up, bring
our training and our residency pro-
grams up, and [my father] decided
he was going to do that,” Kaplan says.
“And he did it.”
In 1972, Gary began his own prac-
tice in Detroit after graduating from
Cumberland University in Tennessee
and the Ohio College of Podiatric
Medicine, and he never looked back.
Like his father before him, he served
as president of the American College

of Foot and Ankle Surgeons, the larg-
est surgical college in the country.
Kaplan and his wife, Toni, raised
their two children, Lauren and Jeremy,
in West Bloomfield. Over the years,
he could have moved anywhere, but
chose to keep his office in the midst of
an underserved community. Why? He
says he’s been asked that question “a
million times.”
“I am a Detroit boy and I love this
city,” he explains. “This is where my
father had his first practice. This is
where I belong.”
Kaplan has served tens of thousands
of patients, treating various foot and
ankle ailments from sports injuries
to diabetic foot conditions and more.
He has also trained countless surgical
residents, sharing his expertise with
young doctors.
He goes out of his way to make
medical care convenient and afford-
able, offering Saturday hours and
same-day appointments.
“He cares deeply about his patients,
the neighborhood, and he always goes
above and beyond,” says his wife, Toni,
a clinical psychologist. “He’s always
just had this energy and optimism for
Detroit. He knows many businesses
have left the city and he’s not going to
be one of them.”
This year marks 73 years since the
office first opened. Kaplan says he
plans to continue his father’s proud
legacy on Gratiot Avenue for years to
come.
“If your feet hurt, you hurt all over,”
he says. “I love the people and the
patients I see. My No. 1 goal is to help
them heal and make them happy and
productive again.”

*

For information, visit www.drkaplandetroit.com
or call (313) 527-6030.

2066580

52 November 24 • 2016

BC