Short Bio and Pictures

Walt Larimore, MD

Family Physician, Educator, Author, and Medical Journalist

Internationally Recognized Family Physician and Educator

Dr. Larimore retired from direct patient care in December 2021 after serving 40 years as a family physician and delivering over 1,500 babies. During his distinguished career, Dr. Larimore was listed in Distinguished Physicians of AmericaThe Best Doctors in AmericaWho’s Who in AmericaWho’s Who in Medicine and HealthcareWho’s Who in Science and EngineeringInternational Health Professionals of the Year, and International Health Scientists of the Year. In addition, Dr. Larimore has been listed in the Guide to America’s Top Family DoctorsAmerica’s Registry of Outstanding Professionals, and The 2000 Intellectuals of the 21st Century. In 2019 Dr. Larimore was named a 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient of Marquis Who’s Who in America. Less than 5% of Marquis Who’s Who listees are selected for this singular honor.

During his career, Dr. Larimore served on the adjunct faculty of several medical schools and family medicine residencies.  In 1996, Dr. Larimore was named America’s Outstanding Family Physician Educator (Thomas W. Johnson Award) by the American Academy of Family Physicians and in 1999, he and his wife, Barb, were named National Educators of the Year by the Christian Medical Association. He also served over a decade as a volunteer physician for the U.S. Olympic Committee.

Dr. Larimore completed his Residency in Family Medicine at Duke University Medical Center in 1981 and completed a General Practice Teaching Fellowship at Queen’s Hospital in Nottingham, England in 1978. His M.D. degree, with AOA honors, was from Louisiana State University School of Medicine in 1977; and his B.S. degree was from Louisiana State University in 1974.

Best-Selling and Award-Winning Author

Dr. Larimore is a prolific author and has written, co-written, or edited forty-one books, thirty medical textbook chapters (topics ranging from maternity care, prenatal care, sports injuries, endoscopy, rural health economics, faith and medicine, and ethics), and over 1,200 articles in a variety of medical journals and lay magazines. His most recent book, which took nearly 16 years to research and write, is about his father, Philip B. Larimore’s exploits and heroism in World War II. At First Light: A True World War II Story of a Hero, His Bravery, and an Amazing Horse h has received more awards (2023 International Page Turner Non-Fiction Book of the Year, Golden Author, and Best Book in the Genre of True Stories awards, as well as a 2022 Silver Medal from the Military Writers Association of America. The book was featured at the Louisiana Book Festival and the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. As a result of the book, in 2023 Phil Larimore was inducted into the Army 3rd Infantry Division’s Marne Hall of Fame (along with General George Marshall and President Dwight Eisenhower) and was nominated by General David Petraeus for the Army’s Officer Candidate School (OCS) Hall of Fame.

Dr. Larimore’s best-selling books include Bryson City TalesBryson City SeasonsLintball Leo’s Not-So-Stupid Questions About Your Body,  and Alternative Medicine: The Christian Handbook. Dr. Larimore currently posts a medical and health news blog (www.DrWalt.com), for which he has posted over 5000 articles. Since 2007, he has written a health column, Ask Dr. Walt, for Today’s Christian Living magazine and a quarterly Medical News You Can Use column for the Colorado Family Physician journal.

Award-Winning Medical Journalist

Dr. Larimore has been a medical journalist and blogger since 1995. In 2021 and 2022, Dr. Larimore hosted over 40 episodes of “Ask Dr. Walt” on the Liftable TV Network. In 2022, he also hosted Liftable TV’s “The Daily Apple: Medical News You and Your Family Can Use” and the weekly “The Inside Story: Conversations about the art and heart of writing.” Dr. Larimore hosted the nationally syndicated Focus on Your Family’s Health from 2001 to 2004. These 90-second daily news features were in as many as 75 radio and 37 TV markets across the U.S. He also provided live on-air interviews to local TV affiliates and national cable TV outlets about breaking medical news. From 1995 through 2000, Dr, Larimore hosted over 850 live daily episodes of the National Cable TV Show Ask the Family Doctor on The Health Network (previously America’s Health Network) and later on Fox’s Health Network. While with The Health Network, Dr. Larimore was awarded the prestigious “Gracie” Award in 2000 by the American Women in Radio and Television for his work on the program, “Mastectomy/Breast Reconstruction Webcast and Broadcast,” which was recognized for “Outstanding Collaboration between Broadcast and New Media.” Besides hosting the show in-studio, he also performed investigative and fieldwork. At its peak, his show was available in over 28 million American homes. Joe Maddox, the past President and COO of America’s Health Network, said that Dr. Larimore had more “… actual on-air TV experience than any physician in the history of television.”

Dr. Larimore and his childhood sweetheart, Barb, have two adult children and two grandchildren. They reside in Colorado and have been married for nearly 50 years.

Click here for Dr. Walt’s longer biography.