The Kids First Fund (KFF) recently named Dr. George Nagobads (Edina, Minn.) as an Ambassador for Children.

Nagobads, who was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010, was chosen to serve as an Ambassador for Children in honor of his work helping young people and for providing them with a safe environment.

The Kids First Fund is a U.S.-based charity that helps abused children in resource-poor areas of the world by developing programs that provide professional education to identify and treat abused children.

Nagobads grew up in Latvia and received his medical degree from Black Forest University in Germany. He moved to the United States in 1951 to being his surgical residency in Minneapolis at the Swedish Hospital (now the Metropolitan Medical Center). He went on to work as the team physician for the University of Minnesota’s men’s ice hockey team for 34 years. He also served as the team physician for 30 U.S. national teams at all levels, including the 1980 U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team that captured the gold medal in Lake Placid, New York.