Thomas Golemon MD | Directory

Biographical Info

I was born in the piney woods of east Texas in a town called Jasper, but my father moved our family to central west Texas when I was starting school, so I grew up in the small towns of Ranger and Cisco, Texas. I went to undergraduate school at the University of Texas in Austin, and medical school at Southwestern Medical School, in Dallas. Following my three year residency in Columbus, Georgia, I stayed as a faculty member and taught one year before moving to Lockhart, Texas for a decade of private practice. That experience allowed me to use all the skills I had learned, including (rural) inpatient care, Obstetrics with C-section privileges, and both Nursing Home and Home visits along with the usual office practice. Looking for a return to teaching, I found a position at OSF St. Francis’ Residency in Family Medicine here in Peoria, and after three years, moved to Methodist’s Family Medicine Residency as Program Director in 1992. I served in that role for twenty years, and then moved to the role of Chair of the Department of Family and Community Medicine. During the years at Methodist, I developed a dermatology clinic — both for our residents’ learning experience as well as our patients’ access to care. That clinic grew significantly, and has been a big part of my teaching role for many years. An outgrowth of these years of teaching was to be honored as Teacher of the Year in our Residency on several occasions, and as the IAFP Teacher of the Year in 2004.

After five years as Department Chair, I retired with my wife (and co-faculty member) Joan Golemon, in January of 2018, and we are now serving as Preceptors and Specialty Clinic teachers between our long-delayed plans for travel.

My greatest accomplishment was marrying Joan (Reid) Golemon, and raising our four children with her — Luke, Austin, Hayden and Katelyn. We both enjoy football, and as Joan is the team doctor for our High School team at Elmwood/Brimfield, we get to see a lot of that sport. Additionally, she has adopted the Longhorns, and I get to see them play in Austin once a year, at least. We also love to play golf together (I taught her all she knows). We love to travel and to hike, and have visited many of the National Parks with our children. We hope to continue to pursue these activities for many years to come.