Hello Steemians…I’d like to introduce myself and share with you some of the interesting milestones in the walk through my life as we get to know one another better.
I was born and raised in northeastern Ohio with wonderful parents. As a kid I played baseball from morning to night in the corner vacant lot near my home. I grew up in the 40’s during a time when polio was quite prevalent, and my parents wouldn’t allow me to go to the local public swimming pools in fear that I would catch the disease. Consequently, I never learned to be a good swimmer, but now being retired in sunny Florida with a pool in my lanai, I’ve learned to enjoy the water.
My father started me on collecting US stamps when I was 6 years old. I continued collecting US stamps, first day covers, UN stamps and JFK Memorial stamps and now I’m planning to give them to my grandson to continue the collection.
I played lots of Little League ball, Pony League, Class B, Double A ball through my post high school days. I played on the Little League team that won the Ohio State Playoffs, but lost the last game in the Regional Playoffs to go to the Little League World Series. My biggest excitement was hitting a grand slam home run that allowed us to go the State Playoffs.
The next year I played Pony League Ball and my team ended up being the runner-up in the Pony League World Series played in Washington, PA. Joey Brown, a well known comedian of his time met all of us in Washington, and we got to shake his hand while being video-taped. His son was the owner of the Pittsburgh Pirates. We were invited to Pittsburgh to put on an exhibition one inning game, but it got rained out.
I continued playing baseball in college at Ohio State University, but it was short lived, as I got accepted into medical school after a 3 year pre-med course. After graduation I began a pediatric internship and residency training program at Columbus, Ohio Children’s Hospital.
During this time in our history the Viet Nam War was going on. Every physician graduating from a US Medical School was automatically enlisted in the military upon graduation. The Army called it the Berry Plan. After either internship or one year residency, the physician was placed on active duty in one of the military services and was expected to serve one tour of duty either in country or any military installation in the world. Six months before I was to enter active duty, I visited Washington DC and was told that I had a greater than 50% chance of going to Viet Nam. As it turned out, I was assigned to an Army clinic in Bamberg, Germany, where I spent nearly 3 years. I was the only pediatrician and responsible to see all the children of military dependents stationed in Bamberg. It was like having a private practice but with no responsibility for overhead or worry whether the patients could pay for my services….it was all free! The Army offered me many opportunities to expand my experience in different areas of pediatrics, do in-service training at local dependent military schools, and create educational materials for parents.
Beautiful Bamberg Rathaus (City Hall)
After three years in Bamberg I still had to complete another year of pediatric residency training before I could become board-certified. I applied for a senior residency training slot at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii and was accepted. Who could ever turn down an assignment like that!!! Wow!!! That year of training at Tripler was really fulfilling. I participated in several research studies that got published, and I spent 100 days as a visiting resident to the Army SEATO Research Lab in Bangkok, Thailand where I learned about infectious diseases at the Thai Children’s Hospital.
At the end of that year, I owed the Army two years of service. This Army experience was quite good to this point so I asked to go back to Würzburg, Germany. I loved my previous assignment in Bamberg…and 3 years went by like a flash!
After two years as chief of pediatrics at the Würzburg Army Hospital, I volunteered to continue my career in the Army and transfer to Berlin where an opening occurred in the pediatric staff. Again, I was the senior officer in the pediatric staff and thereby had the position of chief of pediatrics for 3 more years. I lived in Army housing in the Dahlem District of Berlin, but many senior officers lived in the mansions once inhabited by the Nazis around the period of World War II. I visited east Berlin many times.
Several years later when I was the Pediatric Consultant in Europe, I came with my staff to Berlin. That evening 17 of us with our families took an Air Force bus to East Berlin for dinner. About 11:15pm I asked the waiter why everyone in the restaurant was so happy…he said that at 7:30pm that evening, it was announced on the radio and TV that the wall was coming down at midnight. That was November 9, 1989. We were the last Americans crossing Check Point Charlie just a few minutes before midnight. The next day many of my staff toured around Berlin and stopped at the Wall to chisel out some pieces as souvenirs to never be forgotten.
After Berlin I returned to CONUS, military term for Continental United States, and was stationed for one year as a staff pediatrician at Eisenhower Army Medical Center in Fort Gordon ( Augusta), Georgia. Since I enjoyed Europe and a pediatric staff opening occurred at SHAPE Medical Center in Mons, Belgium, I accepted a position there, staying for 5 years, again becoming the chief of pediatrics. SHAPE was interesting because there were military people from all the NATO countries. Each country had their own medical staff, but the American doctors were responsible for all in-patients. Taking care of newborns from different countries and trying to understand their traditions and mores in caring for newborns was very interesting. I also had to organize annual school physicals for nearly 1500 students representing all the NATO countries. All the children received immunizations if they needed them.
During my pediatric career, I became interested in managing children with Attention Deficit Disorder (aka Hyperactivity) and school learning problems. I applied for a Fellowship in Developmental Pediatrics and was accepted for a 2 year program at Madigan Army Medical Center in Fort Lewis (Tacoma), Washington. Following this training, I was assigned to Heidelberg, Germany where the 7th Medical Command Headquarters was located for all of Europe. I became the Pediatric Consultant to the Surgeon General and the Head of the the Army’s Exceptional Family Member Program (EFMP). The Army was the first in Europe to implement a public law that allowed all children with special health care needs to receive their education in regular classrooms and supplemented with special needs services addressed on their Individual Education Plan (IEP). There were 13 EFMP Clinics throughout Europe each having a developmental pediatrician, occupational therapist, physical therapist, psychologist, social worker, and audiologist. These specialists together with the school evaluated and developed each referred child’s IEP, and they provided the services within the school. It was the first time in history that the Army hired pediatric-trained specialists.
I remained at 7th Medical Command for 8 years and when the headquarters was transferred to Landstuhl, I moved there and continued my job for another 2 years….ending 27 years on active duty. During all the years in the Army my family enjoyed traveling to many countries in Europe and my 3 sons experienced living in a European culture, which was very influential in their upbringing. I became a Mac fiend, buying my first Mac while at Fort Lewis and have used this type of computer ever since. Joined a Mac Users group in Heidelberg and became friends with many Germans who were part of the group. One of those people was Gunter von Hagens, an anatomy professor at the local University who invented Plastination for preserving cadavers and teaching medical students around the world about human anatomy. Some of you may have attended one of his exhibitions.
Genealogy also got into my blood and I began researching my family backgrounds. I visited some eastern European countries where my grandparents lived before emigrating the the United States.l Today I have quite a genealogy file using RootsMagic to document all my findings.
Well, after retiring from the Army I applied for a job with the University of Illinois Chicago to be the head of the Special Health Care Needs Program of Illinois called the Division of Specialized Care for Children (DSCC). Each state has a similar program, and each state has its own program and name. Our program helped needy families obtain specialized services for their children. After 12 years I retired and happily moved to southwest Florida, which I call paradise. I’ve engaged in some volunteer pediatric work with practices throughout Florida. My wife and I have taken some summer and Christmas trips back to Europe, and one summer we joined two of my sons and their families, including two grandchildren, for a trip to Australia. It’s been a wonderful walk through life that I hope still has a few more years…and I hope to meet and make friends with many new Steemians.
