I was born March 20, 1949 in Delta, Colorado, delivered in a small house converted to a maternity annex by the local rural hospital. That arrival probably set the stage for my eventual dedication to rural medicine.
My family moved to Illinois shortly afterwards and I was brought up in the small farm town of Streator. When our family doctor’s daughter died from leukemia, I resolved at the age of thirteen to become a doctor and find a cure for cancer.
I graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1971 with a BA in English. I chose this major intentionally to stretch my brain beyond the usual premedical courses. It was at Oberlin that I met my dear wife, Laura Ashkin. We spoke often of our desire to travel and see the world.
After I enrolled in 1971 at USC Medical School in Los Angeles, I quickly realized that I was not cut out for a research career. I preferred the clinical side of medicine. These interests led me to pursue a more general exposure to many aspects of medicine, and I completed a rotating internship at LAC/USC Medical center in June 1976.
Medical degree in hand, Laura and I set off on our travels, working along the way in hospitals in India, Nepal, and Alaska. When I returned to the US in 1978, I decided the field for me was Family Medicine. I wanted to treat and heal the whole person, not just one body part or one organ system. I completed a Residency in Family Medicine in Ventura, California in 1981.
Just as I was searching for a place to settle, I saw a position posted for Eastern Plumas District Hospital. Rural medicine had always been my dream. I wanted to use the full range of skills I had been trained for - delivering babies, covering the ER, solving riddles of mysterious ailments, sitting at my patients’ bedside in a comforting hometown hospital. I wanted to know my patients as full human beings who were part of a community, my community. I was thrilled to start work at EPHC in August 1981. We raised our two wonderful children, Ethan and Miriam, right here in Portola.
I have always loved teaching the next generation of health care practitioners and through my Clinical Faculty appointments at UC Davis and UNR Schools of Medicine I had the privilege of mentoring medical students, nurse practitioners, and residents during their rotations here at EPHC.
After 25 years in Portola, I moved to a different position at Washoe Medical Center (now Renown Health) in Reno where I finished my career in 2020. My heart has always been, and always will be, in rural Family Medicine. I am grateful for the opportunities and experiences I have had in my rich and varied life.