{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/fx73t9gb0k/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Dr. Jack Stelmach"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by the Center for the History of Family Medicine as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from the Center for the History of Family Medicine.  Disclaimer:  The views presented in this broadcast are the speaker’s own and do not represent those of CHFM or the AAFP Foundation. The information presented is for general, educational, or entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal, health, financial, or other advice. \u003c/p\u003e"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":["2006-05-12 (created)","2006-05-26 (other)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Type"]},"value":{"en":["Oral History"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Don Ivey (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["audio file"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["American Academy of Family Physicians","family physician","family medicine"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["W. Jack Stelmach, MD (personal name)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}}],"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003eThis item is protected by U.S. copyright and related rights. It is being made available by the Center for the History of Family Medicine as its rights-holder for noncommercial use, including sharing and adapting the work. No permission is required for noncommercial use so long as attribution is provided. All other uses require permission from the Center for the History of Family Medicine. \u0026nbsp;Disclaimer: \u0026nbsp;The views presented in this broadcast are the speaker\u0026rsquo;s own and do not represent those of CHFM or the AAFP Foundation. The information presented is for general, educational, or entertainment purposes and should not be considered legal, health, financial, or other advice.\u0026nbsp;\u003c/p\u003e"]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Center for the History of Family Medicine"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Center for the History of Family Medicine"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283335","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 4 - Stelmach_Jack_Pt1_06_a.wav"]},"duration":1690.03431,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283335/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283335/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/283/335/original/Stelmach_Jack_Pt1_06_a.wav?1753285589","type":"Audio","format":"audio/wav","duration":1690.03431,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283335","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]},{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283334","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 2 of 4 - Stelmach_Jack_Pt1_06_b.wav"]},"duration":1689.41821,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283334/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283334/content/2/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/283/334/original/Stelmach_Jack_Pt1_06_b.wav?1753285589","type":"Audio","format":"audio/wav","duration":1689.41821,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283334","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283334/transcript/81830","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Dr. Jack Stelmach Interview Transcript [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283334/transcript/81830/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Side One of the oral history with Dr. W. Jack Stelmach, MD recorded on May 12, 2006 by Don Ivey, Manager of the Center for the History of Family Medicine.  \n\nCan you give us your name in full? \n\nMy full name is Walter Jack Stelmach and my birthday was March 7, 1926. My father’s name was Jacob Stelmach and my mother’s name was Stella Wanchuke and they both were immigrants from Russia. My father from an area around Moscow and my mother from another area called Minsk. They came here in about 1911. My father started a neighborhood grocery store in a very diverse ethnic neighborhood and was called Strawberry Hill in Kansas City, Kansas. I married my wife, Patricia Ann Scherrer in 1948, June 17. I met my wife at a medical laboratory at St. Margaret’s Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas in 1946. She was a registered lab technician and I was just discharged from the US Navy and had the experience of being an assistant as a lab technician. I have three children, Christopher, Cheryl and Jeffrey. Christopher Steven was born on 2/25/51. He is now 55 years old and I have Cheryl Ann Beaver, she was born on 8/23/54. She’s 52 years old. Jeffrey David Stelmach, born on 11/9/56. He is 50. They were all born in Kansas City, Missouri.\n\nTell us a little bit about your early education. You were born in Kansas City, Kansas. What was it like growing up in the Kansas City area?   \n\nGrowing up in Kansas City, Kansas was a lot of fun because there was a very large number of children in the neighborhood that I lived and they were of all ages. There were a lot of things a boy could do and I could say that Huckleberry Finn had nothing on me except I never ran away from home or got into trouble with the law or my teachers. Actually it was a very, very happy childhood. My father had a neighborhood grocery store and he served a large number and variety of ethnic groups. The people liked my father and they respected him very much. He was liked because he was so friendly to everyone and was willing to help any family or person who came to him for help. Our grocery store was like a meeting place, especially on Saturdays when people came in to pay their weekly bills. Our store was also the voting place for our precinct so there was always a lot of activity at my dad’s store.\n\nWhy don’t we talk next about your early years in school. Where did you first go to school and what was that like? \n\nI can remember my grade school very vividly because it was just a few blocks from my dad’s store. It was called Bancroft Public School. Then I went to Wyandotte High School in Kansas City, Kansas and I was very much involved in music and played in the orchestra for some four years and we played in all the venues, including musicals, concerts and all activities associated with music, graduation and so forth. One of the things about my experience in high school is that I was very much involved in music. My dad bought me a very small violin when I was only nine or ten years old and I got to be pretty good playing melodies and won a contest in Kansas City, Kansas and got a gold cup and an interview with a showman, a violinist called Dave Rubinoff. This was the beginning of my increasing activity playing that violin, which I enjoyed very, very much.\n\nYou graduated from high school and then you went to the University of Kansas City, is that correct? \n\nRight. I went to the University of Kansas City for one year prior to my entrance into the US Navy. My major I chose was fine arts and I felt that getting into some form of music environment would be ideal, but after my experience as a student, my first year at the school was not too good. I was somewhat immature and really wasn’t ready for an active college life. Then I went into the service in 1944 and remained in the service for about two years and was discharged honorably in 1946.\n\nYou want to talk a little bit about your service life? \n\nFirst of all, I had never been out of town, out of the Kansas City area, so for an 18 year old, this was really an adventure and I have good feelings about my years in the Navy. The first six weeks I was sent to Farragut, Idaho for boot camp. During the time of boot camp I was privileged to be picked as a special oarsman for a whale boat race. We won the race, which gave me a lot of prestige with the rest of the group and it was enjoyable. The remaining crew was extremely large people and I don’t know how I ever got to be chosen for that, but in any event, it was a lot of fun.\n\nI next went to corpsman school for six weeks and graduated as a First Class Navy Corpsman. From there, I was sent to Ithaca, New York at Camp Pendleton where I had more training in the hospital, in laboratory work and also on the hospital wards. Surprisingly, I received a special one man draft and was sent to Miami, Florida. When I finally arrived at the train station in Miami, I was greeted by a small contingent of Russian Navy medical officers and some sailors, along with a few American Navy medical officers. They spoke to me in Russian and I replied back as best as I could, which created a lot of laughter from them because they couldn’t understand my dialect because in my dad’s store, not only did we speak Russian at home but my dad’s store, every ethnic group would bring in their few phrases, so my Russian was combined Russian, American, Polish and what else? That was kind of unique. I also found out that I was to become a liaison between the Russian Naval personnel and our American Naval personnel. That was quite an experience.\n\nLet me back up just a second. For the corpsman training, had you chosen that? What led you to get into that? Were you assigned to do that training? \n\nI chose that at the time.\n\nWhy did you choose that? It’s kind of a long way from a fine arts music background into that. \n\nThere was not much else, I think, that appealed to me. I just picked it I think, because it sounded better than some of the other opportunities.\n\nYou were in Miami for a period. What did you do after that? \n\nAt that time, in 1944, late ’44, ’45, we were very friendly with the Chinese and the Russians. They had sent contingents of sailors to teach them how to utilize PT boats to protect their shorelines. Along that group they needed medical assistance so they sent Russian physicians, Naval medical people, a few with the contingent of Russian sailors and the Chinese did the same but I didn’t know much about them. I was there for maybe six to eight months, then I was sent to San Juan, Puerto Rico. And worked there in their Navy hospital facility for the remainder of my time.\n\nWhen did you finally get your discharge from the service? \n\nIt was in 1946.\n\nObviously it sounds like the medical experience you gained in the Navy, would you say that was  a turning point in your life? \n\nI think so. I was pretty assured that I wanted to become a physician after I’d spent time as a corpsman and also spent the time in Miami. I met some super physicians who encouraged me to go into medicine because of the way I devoted myself doing a lot of the medical tasks that were assigned to me.\n\nIn 1946 you were discharged. You came back to this area? \n\nCame back and went back to the University of Kansas City. At this time I was very serious. I became a superb, well-motivated student and really enjoyed school. I graduated in the upper echelons of the class in 1949.\n\nWhat was your major when you went back? \n\nBachelor of Arts, Chemistry and Biology.\n\nAs soon as you graduated, your intention was to go right into medical school? \n\nCorrect. I did. I was accepted at KU Medical School and went there for the four years. It was a very successful experience for me. Very enjoyable, I enjoyed it very much. There were a couple of episodes that were sort of unique. While I was in the surgical service, I had lent a textbook to one of my colleagues, one of my classmates who had not returned it after he’d used it for six weeks. We both were on the surgical service. One afternoon I was going through the locker space, the dressing room of the surgical suite, there was this person with his head in the locker without any clothes and looked like the colleague I had lent the book to. I went up and gave him a resounding smack on his bottom and lo and behold, the person that turned around was the Chief of Surgery. I thought my medical education was complete, but the next morning when we were making rounds, he made a big joke saying he didn’t think he looked that young from behind. I got an A in the course. And everybody in school knew about that episode. I was very fortunate to become Alpha Omega Alpha, which is an honor, Phi Beta Kappa of the medical school.  \n\nThen I had an internship at St. Margaret’s Hospital. I chose the hospital because I had previously externed there for a year and a half prior to my graduation in school, so I knew everybody there and it actually was almost like a residency because it was quite a long time. I also had more experience in pediatrics at the local Children’s Mercy Hospital, which was affiliated with our internship program at St. Mary’s.\n\nDuring medical school and through internship, were you looking into general practice? Had you made that decision or had you decided anything at that point? \n\nYes. I was always interested in going into general practice at that time because I think I had a great model. My family had a general practitioner that took care of my family and myself whenever we needed anything done, so I was very impressed with him and what he did. I had no other interest of going into another specialty at that time.\n\nDo you recall the doctor’s name? \n\nYes, Dr. Evans. He was the brother of a very famous KU football star, Ray Evans. That was kind of interesting.  \n\nDo you have any other stories from your medical years, your internship you want to share? \n\nAs I said, it was a lot of fun. Most of our class was an older group. They were vets from the service and they were all getting their education from the GI Bill so we were very fortunate that we could get that education and be covered by the GI Bill. I probably would not be able to afford medical school even with the GI Bill unless my wife didn’t work. She was a lab technician and she worked for several physicians while I was in school. She was a very dutiful and helpful gal that I loved very much.\n\nYou’re out of your internship. What happened next? \n\nI had an opportunity to go to a variety of places. My wife and I looked at various communities outside of Kansas City and we talked to certain physicians, to groups and we always seemed to come back to Kansas City and we finally were honest with each other and we decided we wanted to stay in Kansas City. I went into solo practice in an area in south Kansas City, in an area called the Waldo area. I can remember all the details and some of the good things and some of the bad things. First of all, we had about 400 square feet or maybe less than that, on the second floor, without air conditioning and the thing I used to do… at that time, a successful practice was the number you had coming to see you. When I first started practicing, I’d made appointments to have them all come at the same time so they thought I was the busiest young doctor in the Waldo area and actually when I saw those four people I was finished for the day for awhile. The other thing that happened while I was in solo practice, somebody had given me an outdated EKG machine and as we were taking an EKG on one of our patients, it must have caught a radio station while the EKG was being done. The music came out of this and scared the patient. He thought something drastic was going to happen to him and we couldn’t figure it out for a little while, but then when we got a new machine, we realized that old machine was the best receiver of certain stations in the Kansas City area so maybe we could have used it as a radio. The other thing that was kind of unusual is that I had bought some cheap furniture and the chair to the desk was green and unfortunately, I didn’t realize that it was just painted green. I wore a light suit and spent an afternoon perspiring up there and didn’t realize that when I went out to get a cup of coffee, some people on the street kept looking at me as I went by. It turned out that my whole bottom was painted green and I became the Green Monster. That was good experience at Waldo. My practice grew rapidly. I also covered for a couple of internal medicine doctors who were retiring and making house calls for them. I also did some extra work for a railroad company to do some clinic work. My own practice grew so rapidly that I finally had to move to a newer office in the Kansas City area just a little further south where my original office was.\n\nWhere was that? \n\nThat was on State Line Road, 6700 State Line Road.\n\nWhen did you move to the new building? \n\nAfter I think I started practicing, so it must have been three or four years later. I shared a lab and X-ray facility there with another doctor, Frank O’Connell and I stayed there for about I think seven or eight years then went into our own building on 6700 Troost, which is a building that was owned by about 35 different doctors and I was one of those doctors. Had a very, very beautiful, large office there and shared the facilities with three other physicians in taking care of patients. We shared facilities such as X-ray and lab. That office was right close to the Baptist Medical Center so it was no problem to see my patients there then come to the office during the daytime, or even go back for emergencies or any other problems that would have to be taken care of. It was an ideal situation. My practice grew so rapidly and so big that I closed my new patient acceptance in the early ‘70s. At that time I began to function as a preceptor for medical students from the University of Missouri in Columbia.\n\nExplain the term “preceptor.” \n\nA student is assigned to you and you’re responsible for teaching and also observing him and teaching him how to do clinical work. The preceptorship in this situation was that the student was either a third-or a fourth-year medical student and he came and lived in our home with the family. They stayed with me for four weeks at a time. They followed me around as my alter ego practically. They made rounds with me in the hospital, saw patients in the office, made house halls together, went to medical meetings. Did everything that I did as a physician without my students.\n\nHow did you get involved in that program? \n\nI was chosen by the faculty down at Columbia. It was just amazing how much exposure and how much interest in teaching I received from doing that process. I enjoyed it very much, in fact, it was a big factor in why I wanted to go in and train residents later on. The students enjoyed it very much. We were high on the list for people to pick me out because they seemed to enjoy it. When they came to our house, they had to get along with my wife, the three kids and my dog. If my dog liked them they were in, so everybody loved them. They enjoyed having them and they seemed to enjoy the process. I think we had seven or eight that came and did the preceptorship with me, I think all but one went into family practice. We had individuals who I think had not necessarily picked out their specialty choice but after being with me, I think we had some influence on your final choice about going into family medicine.\n\nYou discovered at that point that you kind of had a knack for teaching? \n\nYes. I became a member of the Commission of Education for the Academy in 1971 I think it was. I had served as a delegate to the AAFP from Missouri and it just so happened, going back and looking at what I did prior to my getting involved with the American Academy of Family Physicians, I had the opportunity to be President of the Kansas City Academy, the Missouri Academy. I was President of our department at the hospital, both hospitals. It seems like every time I turned around I got chosen for that position and I enjoyed it, but I worked very diligently to do a good job. I also was chosen to be on the education committee for the Missouri Academy at their annual meeting. Did that for three or four years and later became chairman of that committee.\n\nWhen you first began your practice in the Waldo area, I wanted to ask, what kind of people did you first see in that practice? Tell me a little bit about it. \n\nThe Waldo area at the time really consisted of working class people. There were a lot of little houses around the Waldo area. It seemed like we were getting a few people from the Leawood area, which is a much more upper class environment. Then I got very acquainted with an area called the Marlborough area, which is sort of a suburb of Kansas City that contained a lot of Italian families. A lot of the immigrants that came to settle in that area. I got to know a lot of wonderful Italian families. Then eventually, because my practice was growing and I was covering for two internists who were retiring and asked me to take their practice, which was kind of unique for them to do that but it sure made my practice grow even more rapidly. A lot of those patients came from the Leawood area, as I said, a more affluent area. Then I moved to a brand new office at about 83rd and State Line. There I shared office space with Dr. Frank O’Connell. We weren’t true partners but we shared X-ray and lab. There I had a lot more room and it was a really up-to-date office.\n\nYou mentioned, at least in the early period, you made house calls. \n\nYes. That’s the thing that I really enjoyed doing solo practice, particularly in the Waldo area and also on State Line. I took care of a lot of families. It’s amazing, it’s not just one that came to me but the whole family used to come and I made a lot of house calls because it was convenient sometimes and close by. I didn’t have patients scattered all over the city. They found out if I would come, it was amazing, they probably wouldn’t ask me but a lot of people get anxious and they call up and they don’t know what to do and they’re afraid something’s going to happen and they’re not going to be able to get a hold of you. Once they feel comfortable that they could get a hold of you and you would come to the house, then they really wouldn’t ask you to come unless it was really an emergency. It’s quite different now, but at that time we didn’t have all the technology and all the things we have today. House calls were not unusual.\n\nWhat led to the demise of the house call? \n\nI think because we became much more sophisticated in our clinical medicine, doing a lot more tests and doing things, for example, you can’t take an X-ray at home, you can’t do certain procedures at home. It was more convenient. Then the cost to leave your office and spend an hour or more, with transportation, time gone and coming back and having to do things that you couldn’t do very well in the home, then it came to the point where most anything that was worthwhile doing should be done in the office with proper equipment and also proper environment.\n\nWhen did you give up doing house calls? \n\nI never gave up doing house calls except they were not requested like they used to be. It was really unusual that they would request a house call. Just before I went into education, I don’t think I made very many house calls.\n\nI think you mentioned the early ‘70s? \n\nYeah, the early ‘70s. I never refused, particularly an older person that had problems getting to the office, we would do that. It was amazing, one of the best ways to teach residents what really takes place in the home, it’s absolutely unbeatable, so far as getting to know something about the individuals by seeing how they live and where they live and what else is going on in the family. It was a hell of a good teaching tool.\n\nAny stories or memories from that? \n\nI took a student with me once. I got a call from an Italian family and the husband said, I think my wife is sick and she’s having trouble breathing. We go to the house and I walk in the door and he’s sitting there in a rocking chair and she’s in the back room. I could hear her breathing, difficult breathing. He says, put your bag down, doctor, sit down, have a glass of wine. I said, I want to go back and see your wife. I can hear her having difficulty breathing. He said, she’s been doing that all day, she can wait. He was not inattentive, that’s just the way some of the Italian families felt. The doctor was the most important person and if the patient wasn’t dying immediately, they could wait a little bit until he could relax and go back and see her. It was really an unusual experience and the student couldn’t believe it. I didn’t have a glass of wine, I didn’t do anything, I went back and took care of her. They both were very appreciative.\n\nDid you ever have any home deliveries? \n\nNo. Luckily I never had a home delivery. Always got to the hospital in time. And I never had a patient of mine that they were delivered other than in the hospital. I was very fortunate in that regard.\n\nTell us a little bit about why do you think you were successful? Why do you think your practice grew so well? \n\nI think I was successful because, first of all, I was always available and accessible and I could talk at anybody’s level. People were very comfortable with me. It was pretty obvious that I was well-liked and just kept getting referrals by the dozens to come in and see me. I never was in a hurry with any patient, no matter how trivial or how serious the problem was. That was one of consistency. I never put anybody down. Then I had a super, wonderful nurse that stayed with me from the time I started until the time I retired. Her name was Joanne. I’m sure that when I went into full-time teaching with the residency program, I think half of my practice came with me, or more than half and I’d say that a substantial number of those came because of Joanne. She was the contact in my office and everybody just loved her because she was that kind of a person. I could leave town, although I always had backup coverage, but I could leave town and leave all the responsibility of who to call for any specialty work or anything else because she knew everybody and she knew kind of what they wanted and even how I would handle it so it was kind of a good relationship. In fact, her first two babies, I delivered her after we went from the office down to the delivery room and she had her babies and she didn’t take any time off from the office. It was just amazing but it’s true.\n\nWhat did you like best about the practice of medicine? \n\nI liked the people and enjoyed just being a part of their lives when you can be helpful. There were rewards for being able to help people. It just gave you a good feeling, it’s enjoyable. I think also, if you’re happy inside I think it makes your home life happier too. My wife was kind of the ideal woman that enjoyed what I enjoyed and also was a very good mother and also she was involved with a lot of volunteer stuff. She worked until the children were born but after she gave up being a lab technician she continued to do a lot of volunteer work and also continues to do a lot of things now. Keeps herself busy and I think people love her for that.\n\nWhat are the things you liked least about practicing medicine? \n\nI think getting too busy where you felt like you were being rushed. I just didn’t like that at all. In fact, that’s why I closed my practice to new patients because I got to the point where I didn’t want to be a treadmill, not being able to have enough time to take care of the patients that I had. It was amazing. My colleague said that I would ruin my whole practice, but just the opposite occurred. When people found that I’d closed my practice, they wanted to get on my special list, if somebody moved or somebody passed on or what have you. We had a book that was loaded with names and it was kind of a joke, that I had something special. We didn’t, we just gave our time and our sincere interest in taking care of patients. That was the secret of our success, I think.\n\nAt this point, it might be a good time to start talking about your involvement in the many offices you’ve held all through family medicine and the different organizations. Let’s start at the beginning. When did you first get involved in family medicine organizations? \n\nI became a member in 1955. I graduated in ’54 and ’53 had an internship and a little bit more pediatrics. I don’t know why I waited a year because I was interested in family practice but for some reason it was not until 1955 that I joined the Academy.\n\nThe Academy was General Practice, correct? \n\nCorrect. Then I got very much involved and always went to the meetings and got involved in the activities they had. The Kansas City Academy of Family Physicians, when I first went to the hospital, my major hospital was St. Mary’s Hospital where I took my internship. Many of the family doctors or general practitioners on the staff there were much involved in the Kansas City Academy so I got introduced to all the people of the Kansas City Academy and naturally I joined the Missouri Academy too. I did a lot of activity whenever they had an education committee or any kind of program, I always was interested in getting involved in that and I served with the Missouri Academy and their annual scientific meetings, I served on their education committee to help develop these programs. It seemed like I did so many things related to educational activities, so far as developing programs and then I became a delegate.  \n\n (Taking break.)\n\nWe were discussing your early involvement with the then-AAGP, American Academy of General Practice. You were telling me a little bit about your early years. The first major office you held was President of the Kansas City Academy. \n\nThe Kansas City Academy really was a fairly active group because many of the general practitioners at St. Mary’s Hospital, where I knew most of the medical staff, went to their meetings. I attended all their meetings very diligently and I think probably because I did, I finally became President. There was one thing unique about the Kansas City Academy. I remember Ned Burket, who was a Past President of the American Academy of Family Physicians, I forgot what year, I think it was in ’65 or so, came to talk to that group downtown in Kansas City, Missouri and I was so impressed with him and I remember telling my wife that I’m going to become President of the American Academy of Family Physicians. She still remembers that comment. Ned Burket came from a small town in Kansas and later came and did some teaching at the University of Kansas here in Kansas City. He’s a super guy. I remember him very, very much, he impressed me very much. Then I got involved with the Missouri Academy, went to their annual scientific meeting down at the Ozarks, always had a good time and was involved for many years working to establish their educational program. This was a lot of fun because we could choose the kind of people we wanted to present things to our membership. But it was a fun thing to do and eventually I think we had two delegates to the Academy and they seemed to stay on for years and I remember going to some of the meetings. One of the delegates didn’t show up half the time, would go to a horse race or something else, so the President of the Missouri Academy at that time, I forgot who it was, I said, I’d like to become a delegate and lo and behold, I was chosen to become a delegate to the AAFP and I think the person I replaced was not very happy about it. I won’t mention any names. I started being a delegate in 1969 and I continued to be a delegate until I was voted in as a Board of Directors of the Academy in ’74. \n\nLet’s talk a little bit about the Congress of Delegates. It’s a pretty unique institution. Tell us a little bit about it. \n\nI think the Congress of Delegates really identifies policy and identifies ideas that they want to accomplish and then either pass on it themselves or send some of their requests to the Board to discuss it more, maybe bring it back for the House [sic] of Delegates to make a decision one way or the other. The House [sic] of Delegates is the key for the family doctors throughout the United States. There are sometimes very controversial subjects, activities going on, but again, over a period of time with these special committee meetings, they have these sessions where you can go and they divide them up into areas dealing with legislative branch, the other one deals with health education and others to do with membership, what have you.\n\nIs this within the Congress of Delegates? They assign members? \n\nYes. Well, they have these committees. When you go there you’re assigned to a committee to talk about specific areas and then come back to the Congress after you’ve made a decision. Resolutions are discussed. We ask for resolutions from all the members in every state. If you have any resolutions dealing with any subject having to do with family practice, you submit that before you meet, annual meeting and the Academy and staff identifies and puts these resolutions in certain categories and then those are assigned to special committees and the Congress deals with them as they come out of the committees. They pass on them if they can and if they can’t, they send it to the special committee.\n\nI was a Missouri delegate to the AAFP from 1969 to 1974. The thing I recall vividly was, a lot of controversy about whether we ought to become a specialty. I remember Dr. Kowalewski, the President, who was adamantly against this whole idea of becoming a specialty. I think two or three years of a lot of pros and cons and a lot of reactive rhetoric, I think finally the decision was made that that’s the way we should go. As we all know, our specialty was finally recognized in 1969 as the 21st primary specialty in our country. Those were really exciting times in the Academy and you know, we also changed our name from Academy of General Practice to Academy of Family Physicians. During my time as a delegate, I also served on the Commission of Education, starting in ’71. I really felt that that was a really prestigious position and I enjoyed the members of that commission because we were all interested in education. Around that time, I started to begin thinking about how maybe we could start a residency program, at Baptist Hospital in Kansas City.\n\nLet’s talk a little bit about the commission because it was an important part of your career. \n\nThe Commission on Education was the most prestigious commission of the Academy at that time because it seemed to have more activity with continuing medical education and it was a significant part of being an active, good standing member by making membership dependent on so many credit hours. That was a fun committee. Later on, I became President of the Missouri Academy in ’73 and ’74 and this was more or less in preparation to run as a Board of Trustees for the AAFP.\n\nYou ran and you were elected to the Board of Directors for the Academy in ’74.\n\nYes. This was a real prestige situation for me. Being on the Board of Directors of the Academy was really something for me because I really had admiration for all the people on the Board. They were just super individuals. I also had the opportunity, because of my previous interest in education that as a freshman Board of Trustees, I was given the prestige chairmanship of the Commission of Education, at that time. And from there I served until '76.  \n\nI think we have you as Chairman from '76 TO '77. Is that right? \n\nYes. And then I happened to be elected Chairman of the Board 1976 to '77.  \n\nWhat kind of responsibilities does a Chairman have on the Board of Directors?  \n\nThe Chairman sort of runs the meeting and decides how the agenda is going to be run and what things should be, in priority, discussed and decided on just like any other Board of trustees, that somebody has to be in charge to make sure everything gets covered and some sort of decision be made.\n\nAt that time, '76, '77, what kind of issues was family medicine and the Academy facing?   \n\nSome of the critical issues during my chairmanship of the Board, as I said before, we had been accepted as a new specialty and there were challenges so far as obtaining privileges for obstetrics and other specialty or some other surgical procedures that hadn't been available before. We also dealt with recognition of our specialty in some of the medical schools, particularly some of the private schools. And this was in spite of being very successful in starting training programs throughout the country and a genuine increased interest in students to become family doctors. As anything else, we, I think, had to compete with internal medicine and pediatrics for some of the educational issues in regard to, as I say, privileging our family physicians. And there was always some problem dealing with reimbursement, so we discussed many of those. But, again, there were other positive aspects during that time because of our new interest in becoming a specialty in breadth rather than in depth.\n\n(Part Two of interview, May 26, 2006.)\n\nWe were talking about the period when you were serving as a delegate from the Missouri chapter for AAGP in the Congress of Delegates. Tell us a little bit about that period and what was going on there. \n\nI used to go to every one of the Academy meetings. I thought they were always exciting and very educational and rewarding so it was an annual event for me and when I became a delegate in 1969, but before that, the whole idea of being recognized as a specialty was debated very vigorously. There was both pro and con and I remember, there were huge arguments back and forth. One person stood out against becoming a specialty, Ed Kowalewski who was a very articulate guy from Pennsylvania and he had his points, for sure, but again, this created sort of a him and us. Myself, I was a strong advocate to become a specialty and I expressed myself any time I could and I felt that in reality, most of the younger delegates were in favor of it and most of the older ones, at least in substantial number, the older ones were questionable about it. Eventually, as you know, we were finally recognized as the 21st [20th] primary medical specialty in 1969 and shortly after that, that’s when the formation of the American Board of Family Practice was established. During my delegate years, I was appointed to the Commission of Education of the Academy. That was a very prestigious thing for a delegate to have because that commission was probably the most sought for of all the commissions and committees of the Academy at that time. I served on that commission quite a long time and when I was elected to the Board of Trustees of the Academy, during my first year I was appointed Chairman of the Commission of Education too and served as the Chairman up until ’76, so I had a tenure there from 1971 to 1976.  \n\nSubsequently, before running for Board of Trustees [Directors] of the Academy, I was elected President of the Missouri Academy of Family Physicians in 1973. That was sort of a stepping stone in my preparation to run for Board of Trustees of the Academy. Subsequently, as you know, the American Academy of General Practice changed its name to American Academy of Family Physicians. I was in much favor of that too.\n\nTell us about the period in 1974, that’s when you ran for the Academy Board of Directors. Tell us a little bit about that period. \n\nThat was kind of an exciting period. My Academy gave me full support. The rooms in the hotel were assigned to various delegates that were running for office. Ours had special things that we gave to people that came by, particularly delegates so we could talk them into voting for me and I think I shared with you, some of the little badges and brochures and stuff. We had little favors. It so happened, being from Missouri, the brewery in St Louis, Anheuser-Busch, allowed us to have free beer and that was a very popular spot for delegates to come because we had beer, all you can drink and we always appreciated that. The other chapters also had very interesting demonstrations. I recall the ones from Hawaii would serve pina coladas and various drinks and a lot of coconut stuff. Texas always had barbecue and sometimes they gave barbecued snake meat. It was a lot of fun and everybody seemed to enjoy that whole process. I was thrilled to be elected because it really is a sought after office to participate in the upper echelon.\n\nWhat were some of the issues you had to deal with while you were on the Board? \n\nThe biggest issue at that time, we were constantly fighting some of our specialty colleagues about having certain privileges in the hospitals and also obstetrics and the usual things that we felt that we were not totally recognized by our colleagues in a way we thought we should. Again, we worked on that diligently and every year it seemed to improve. It was a constant thing that we had to address. The American Board of Family Practice that was developed or organized was very active in getting things done for us to be ready to take that examination. We argued a lot about what were the criteria to grandfather in to become a specialist and we were the only specialty that made certain that you didn’t get just grandfathered in because you were a person who called himself a family doctor. We said you had to take an examination and pass it and it would be open for anybody to then go to residency, for a certain period of time. If you didn’t take that opportunity to be certified by taking an examination then you’d lose that opportunity.\n\nThat was a period when you were on the Board in the ‘70S when they decided to do that? \n\nYes. There were all sorts of issues that came up. I can’t recall all the ones, other than we were in the process of getting our name changed and our organization geared to be a little bit different than it was just being a general practitioner.\n\nWhat about when you became President-Elect? Tell us a little bit about the process of running a national campaign. What was that like? \n\nIt was the same thing. I believe your performance as Board of Directors has something to do whether or not you have a fairly good chance of becoming elected. I also was Chairman of the Board before I even ran and I think that helped me too. That’s changed now. You’re Chairman after you serve your presidency but during my time, Chairman could be elected anytime and I was elected to be Chairman during my third year as a Board of Director. The election was sort of interesting. Two of my colleagues on the Board of Directors ran against me and we had to vote twice. A gentleman from South Carolina was defeated. The first person defeated was from Massachusetts and then he was out. I ran with the other gentleman from South Carolina who was very arrogant, told me that he didn’t think I was going to win. Unfortunately for him, I did because as soon as the election was over, he left the Assembly and they never saw him again. It was kind of an interesting situation.\n\nWhy do you think you won? What do you think was the decisive factor? \n\nI’m not a very articulate person but I worked on my speech so intently. In fact, my hospital, Baptist Medical Center, had a studio there and the guy that ran that studio was a patient of mine and he said, come and try your speech and I’ll tape you, you can see what your good qualities are and what your bad qualities are. Let me tell you, that was a very interesting experience because at first, I looked terrible. I weaved back-and-forth, I didn’t articulate my words very well, so I worked on it very diligently and then when I gave my speech to be considered as the President, it went over 100% and I think that had a great deal to do with my final election.\n\nWhat was your platform? What were the things you were running on? \n\nMy platform was very much like being partners in health. Trying to get the message out to the public to be an advocate of the people. We talked about being the caring physician or the advocate of the physicians. I also expressed continuity of care and being accessible and available and having high integrity and giving quality care and stuff. Those were the issues and I also thought it would be good to have partnership with other non-medical groups, like the farmers, or other organizations, to get our point across that really the best thing for America was having personal family docs that really could help them give the best kind of care and then also work with other specialties so that there’d be at least somebody in charge rather than having somebody having five doctors. Coordination of care.\n\nAs a President-Elect in that year period, what kind of things did you do during that period? \n\nI was away from home over 260 days. I think we traveled to about every state organization and attended their annual scientific meetings. During that time, I would give an update of what the national Academy was doing at the time and what issues they were addressing. Also, was available for them to make any suggestions or any comments about what they’d like for me to take back to the Academy. I tried to encourage them to make up resolutions of any kind of problems they had for the following Assembly and it was always an enjoyable experience for me. My wife usually went with me and they always treated us cordially and very well.\n\nIn ’78 you became President of the Academy. Any special memories or highlights you have from that period? \n\nThere were so many wonderful experiences that it’s hard for me to remember them all. I do know one thing. Of all these meetings I used to attend, not only with the Board of Trustees but also with other commissions and committees, we would go with them. We used to meet in practically every golf course of the country. I don’t play golf but I tell you, if anybody who’s a golfer, I asked them if they’ve ever been to Quay Lodge or LaCosta or Pebble Beach and they say no, have you ever been there? I say, yes, about two or three times each. Again, this was a wonderful experience, meeting in those very nice areas and it was a lot of fun, discussing all the issues associated with the Academy and the committees and commissions we had were very diligent in doing their job.\n\nSounds like you enjoyed your time as President. \n\nOh, absolutely. We have a lot of mementos from all over the country. I had the opportunity to go overseas on several occasions.\n\nFollowing your presidency, at that time, after serving as President, the President then became known as the Past President and you served a year and essentially that was an office. Is that correct? \n\nYes. It was kind of an ex-officio Past President but you still went to all the Board of Trustees, Board of Directors meetings and what have you. I still was involved in the voting process too.\n\nJust to clarify, after serving as President, now the President of the Academy becomes Chairman of the Board, I believe. What kind of role do you play as a Past President? \n\nA variety of roles. The thing is this, you’re sort of being a resource for somebody who is coming up and maybe helps somebody in which you started some project and you need to have some continuity of that and then you also filled in for the President and the Vice President because usually the President was asked to go to these state officers meetings, these meetings that they have annually and sometimes they’d send the Vice President and then if they’re not available or if they’re tied up with something else, they’d send the Past President.\n\nAt that point in time, the Academy had the office of Vice President, which it no longer has, is that right? \n\nThat’s right. The other thing, you have some recognition from other organizations. I was appointed as Chairman of GMENAC, the Graduate Medical Educational National Advisory Committee, a government-supported effort to look at what kind of positions, how many and what kind and where they should practice. This was a big project in Washington DC and I served on that, first as a chairman for a year and then as a member from ’76 to ’80. This was a very intensive project that had a lot of political overlays because all the specialties wanted to be sure that their group would hit the high numbers to be made in the future. The final report did come out in 1980s and I think our specialty was thought to be about right, or maybe we needed a little bit more so there was a lot of controversy and I think the way we came up with the final recommendations, I think we learned, much to our chagrin, that in our assumptions, we didn’t take into consideration that we were going to have other things to consider, such as managed care, what have you. Our projections about how many doctors we needed in the future probably had some problems and we had a lot of criticism about what we recommended. But I got a great experience meeting a lot of important and very knowledgeable and talented people in working at this project.\n\nIn ’80, ’81, really immediately after that period, you also served as President of the Council of Medical Specialty Societies. Tell us a little bit about that organization. \n\nThe Council of Medical Specialty Societies, it’s called CMSS. It was formed because AMA, according to some of the subspecialties in our country, they felt like the subspecialties didn’t have adequate representation at the AMA because they chose the delegates according to the numbers of the people that were members. For example, surgeons had so many delegates there and their number was smaller than the American Academy of Family Physicians or the internists. They decided to have their own specialty society where they had representation from all subspecialists, sending two or three to this organization to talk about issues related to each of the specialties. Unfortunately, it was like the United Nations. The best way I can describe it, it kept us talking to each other rather than killing each other, but it was a very prestigious honor to be President of this organization and it was surprising that they would elect a family doctor rather than one of their specialty colleagues.\n\nLet’s shift gears a little bit and talk a little bit about what was the American Board of Family Practice. Now it’s the American Board of Family Medicine. You were on the Board of Directors there, you eventually became President. How did you get involved with them? \n\nEach year the American Board of Family Practice, it’s called American Board of Family Medicine as you say, they pick one person from the Academy and that’s sort of a process where they nominate six people at the Academy meeting and out of six, the delegates choose three and out of that three, the Board picks one. The Board also picks one at-large. I was picked for an at-large candidate for the Board. They had one representing the AMA and then they had one representing from each of the specialties of Internal Medicine, Obstetrics, Surgery and Psychiatry.\n\nIn 1979 you were elected to the ABFP Board of Directors and four years later in ’83 became their President. What was going on in that period? What was happening with the Board? \n\nThere were a lot of things going on as we mentioned before. The specialty was growing in numbers. Diplomates, they had an annual examination that had to be given and we had to pick out special individuals to write the questions that were to be given on that Board [exam] so there were all sorts of work to do, getting question writers, getting people that can validate and understand the whole testing process, plus the fact that the American Board of Family Medicine, I think had celebrated their tenth anniversary in 1979 and were a little concerned that although we grew in numbers, in residents and residency programs, the public didn’t know very much about the new specialty so the Board began to do some PR work in that regard and that was a project that really was the beginning of what I’m doing in my retirement, developed a program called Partners in Health. The whole idea was to try to expose how family doctors were trained so that the public could understand a little bit more about the new specialists.\n\nAlso during this period, you mentioned you were dealing with the Residency Review Committee. What were they and what did they do? \n\nThe Residency Review Committee for Family Practice was one of many. Each specialty that gave examinations and had residency programs had to go through a process of getting accredited so it was a very prestigious position. I looked at all the residency programs in the country and graded them in regard to their quality and their following the rules, so far as proper curriculum, proper supervision and testing for quality issues and what have you. I spent many hours looking over applications of various programs to either accredit them or at least identify what deficiencies were present. I got to know a tremendous amount of people in this particular area. It also had something to do with improving the quality of the new specialists we were training.\n\nAnything more you’d like to add about your service on the ABFP? \n\nNo, it seemed like we dealt with so many issues in regard to the training of the new family doctor and how he was evaluated in regard to how he ran his office practice and also how he was to be tested. This took up a lot of our discussions and time while I served on that organization.\n\nLet’s next address what was then known as the Family Health Foundation of America, which is now the AAFP Foundation. You were elected to the Board of Trustees of that organization in 1979. How did you get involved with them? \n\nIt was an elected process, I think, the Board of Trustees of the Foundation elected me to serve, supposedly, I think, for a period of five years. My recollection is that I served on the Board of the Foundation for quite a long time.  \n\nYou were there from ’79 TO ’90 and you were President for a six-year period from ’80 to ’86.  \n\nThat was a very interesting situation, the Foundation. Most of the Academy members didn’t know much about the Foundation and I think we were kind of a joke. Some people thought it was a place for Past Presidents, past officers to sort of retire and just have some place to go and have a meeting. I think we tried to change that when I became President, we tried to change that whole image to make it a more meaningful dynamic type of organization. I remember that we had hired Gary McMann to help us develop a new image of the Foundation. When I first became President of the Foundation, I thought, here we are, a large organization. If each doctor would give a small amount, we could become a multimillion dollar foundation in five to ten years. I realized that that was sort of wishful thinking and it turned out that even though we made every effort to improve the sources of income coming in, they seemed to not get anywhere. In fact, I think our expenses were probably larger than the money that came in to do anything with the Foundation. I believe rightfully so, the Academy kind of took it over and that’s when it changed its name to American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation. I think that’s what they call it now. They appointed Sandy Panther, I think as its Director, or Dr. Tom Stern I think had something maybe to do with it. Maybe not. But anyway, in her hands, with new membership, it became highly successful, one of the most successful foundations for any medical organization.\n\nWhy do you think they were able to turn it around? \n\nI think they were able to turn it around because they got a little bit more support from the Academy, but I think they included corporate support. That’s where the large monies come in and I think they organize it in a way that it was sort of a win/win situation for the Academy and also for the corporations or the pharmaceuticals. Again, I think also the Academy indicated that they also got involved by asking each member to consider contributing a certain amount of money when they pay their dues. I think there’s an assessment that we would suggest that you make when you pay your dues.\n\nAnything else stand out during your tenure as either President or member of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation? \n\nI can’t honestly say that, no.\n\nTell us about the many awards you’ve won. Tell us what they are and your memories of receiving them. The first one we wanted to ask you about was the John G. Walsh Award. \n\nThe John G. Walsh Award was an award that was given not very often, it was called the Founders Award and it given to me for so-called dedicated and effective leadership and also furthering the development of family medicine. John Walsh was an Academy member who was President of everything except the Society of Teachers. It was joked to me that I had become President of everything in the Academy and also the Board and also the Missouri Academy and the Kansas City Academy so I’d been President of every family practice or general practice organization that I was ever involved in, including being Chairman of the Department of Family Practice in all the hospitals I was a member of. They kind of joked that I deserved that award because the only thing I wasn’t President of was the Society of Teachers.  \n\nThere was nothing else to be President of.\n\nNo. But the thing that really was the most important to me in medical school was the recognition that I was a member of the Honor of Medical Society, Alpha Omega Alpha.  \n\nUniversity of Kansas in ’53?  \n\nYes, and that’s the Phi Beta Kappa of medicine.\n\nAlso in ’81, another award I wanted to ask you about was the Max Cheplove Award. \n\nThe Max Cheplove Award is an award that is given to again, leadership in family medicine. It started out as a local thing in Buffalo, New York. When you look at some of the recipients, including Dr. Stern, Dr. Nick Pisacano, I guess because of my activity with the Academy, I was asked to come and receive their award. I received a big medal and a big ribbon and it’s kind of prestigious. They had a very nice program and I received it in Buffalo, New York. It’s for leadership in family medicine.\n\nThen you got two Awards of Merit. You got one in ’81 with the Academy. What was that? \n\nAward of Merit, this one up here, this is for my activity…it says, “For significant contribution to family medicine and American medicine, generally, while serving on the Graduate Medical Educational National Advisory Committee.” GMENAC. The other one, was an award of merit from the ABFP in ’94. That one says, “In recognition of the successful completion of four consecutive recertification periods representing outstanding commitment to excellence in the specialty of family practice.”  \n\nOne more I wanted to ask you about was fairly recent. In 2003 you received the Samuel Curtis Reeves Award. What’s that in conjunction with? \n\nThe Shepherd’s Center, voluntary work.\n\nTell us a little bit about the Shepherd’s Center. \n\nThe Shepherd’s Center is a non-profit, philanthropic organization that believes that older individuals have not only a desire but a need to give back to the community and where they live, something that would be useful, not only to their own peers but to the community as a whole. It’s a 501(c)(3). The Shepherd’s Center was a real asset for the residents who were in training, to see that older people were not like what they saw in the university. Sometimes they were frail, very sick and disabled and what have you. They didn’t see the vast, vast majority of people over 65 who were still very active and could contribute very much back to society and so I got involved with the Shepherd’s Center, not only during my directorship at the residency program but also after I retired, I got very much involved in doing things for older groups in regards to improving their health issues.\n\nI wanted to talk a little bit about your work with the Goppert Family Care Center. You were the founder of that. \n\nI want to clarify one thing. The Goppert Family Care Center is the practice center of the Baptist Medical Center Family Practice Residency Program. The residency program has a practice center too where you see patients and what have you, as compared to some of the specialists, at least in the earlier days when they did most of their training in the hospital. Our training for family doctors not only included the hospital but also seeing patients in an office setting like what they would do when they finished their training. The Goppert Family Care Center is part of the residency program of the Baptist Medical Center Family Practice Residency Program.  \n\nThis whole issue about the residency program is one of my favorite topics. I got really interested in teaching during the 1960s and early ‘70s during my practice years. I was a preceptor for third- and fourth-year students from the University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri. Dr. [A. Sherwood] Baker there, who was the Chairman of Community \u0026 Family Medicine, would send a student up to me and that student, male or female, would spend four weeks with me and lived in my home. In fact, the student would have meals with us and he or she was part of the family, including my wife, my three kids, my dog and me. That student would go with me to the office, see patients, do minor procedures, make hospital rounds and see patients in a nursing home and go to medical staff meetings. Do everything that a family doctor does and learn how that family doctor lives and what it’s like to be a family doctor, in an urban, fairly large community. I’m sure this also took place in rural communities, which probably was a little bit different. Anyway, I really enjoyed teaching and I did a lot of stuff at the new medical school here in Kansas City, Missouri, University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine. I served on the evaluation committee and was involved in doing a lot of things with students. I thought it’s time, since I really enjoy doing this and I had to close my practice in the late ‘60s because I had too many patients to see and I said, we need to train more family doctors so then I began looking into what it took to start a program. I talked first to the dean at the medical school. He said, you ought to start a program down at the university campus down there. I said absolutely not because they were not friendly to family medicine. Baptist Medical Center where I did my hospital service, they were very friendly to all family physicians, so what I did, I said, I’m going to see if I can start one here at a community hospital. I first talked to my own department of family medicine and they thought that would be a great idea. Then I went to each of the specialties in my hospital, told them what I wanted to do and got their approval. Everybody was absolutely supportive except pediatrics was a little shaky and I worked on that for awhile and then they came around too. I met with the medical staff, met with all the personnel of the hospital, met with the administrators and board of trustees and they all thought it would be a great idea so I prepared the foundation of getting support from all areas of Baptist Medical Center. The next step was to get financial support or the space support and also look for faculty and also go through the process of getting approval to be a residency program that could take in residents. It’s not an easy process. I filled out an application with a lot of help, to indicate how we’re going to do our training, where we’re going to do our training, all the things that you need to have before you can be approved. I also picked faculty. That was an interesting thing.  I picked people who were the most successful physicians in the city, Dr. [R.] Stacy Long, Dr. Monty Dernell and then I also picked a rural physician, Dr. Ben Kuhn (?) from Bolivar, Missouri. These were all superb clinician family docs and they all were enthusiastic to come. I also had Dr. Jack Hewitt, who is a clinical psychologist who stayed in my office before I even moved to the conference center and he came along.\n\nI finally got approval. Also I got approval by the accrediting council and also brought my own personnel, my nurse that I told you about, Joanne Molhowsky, who came along with me and spent the remaining time as a nurse coordinator for the whole Goppert Family Care Center. Even after I turned over the program to Dr. Rues, she continued to be there and be a very positive influence. People say, where did you get your patients? Most of my patients came from my own practice and also Dr. Long and Dr. Monty Dernell’s practice, so we had sufficient number of patients immediately. A lot of them came because of our nurse personnel. They brought their own nurses, their own medical personnel. We had an absolute immediate source of patients. We took in six residents and we took in one second-year resident. One of the second-year residents was Dr. [Larry] Anderson and a story about Dr. Anderson, he subsequently became one of the members of the Board of Directors of the Academy and also has served as a delegate to the AMA and also was a member of the American Board of Family Medicine too. He came on board because he had first become a veterinarian. Finished school, decided he wanted to go into medicine, then he finished medical school and took an extra year of internship over at St. Luke’s Hospital in Kansas City and decided he really wanted to be a family doctor. All his past experience, we took him on as a second-year and he graduated in two years rather than the three that the other ones finished.  \n\nSince we started this program, it’s been a horrendous success. We have matched every year getting very high quality people and it has grown from 18 per year to 24 per year and then just recently, in the last three years, because Trinity Hospital was closed after they had been taken over by HCA who bought all the hospitals in town, they combined with our program, with their 18 residents, so we have even a bigger program now. We have 24 plus 18, 42 combined program. It remains successful. All I can tell you is I feel very proud that during my directorship, I trained over 100 family docs, they all passed their boards at the highest level of accomplishment and most have stayed in the Kansas City Metropolitan area.\n\nYou directed it for 20 years, right?\n\nRight.\n\nFrom ’74 to ’94. A couple of follow-up questions. How long did it take you from concept to actually implementing the program?   \n\nAbout two years. Actually the thing that took the longest is filling out the application and getting all the things ready for the accreditation process. We call it the Goppert Family Care Center because Mr. and Mrs. Goppert came to Baptist Medical Center one time for a luncheon and were looking for things to help in the hospital. I happened to have lunch with them and explained to them what I was planning to do about starting a family practice program. They were very, very interested and lo and behold, I got a grant for $250,000. That was the first one, then later on they have another $150,000 and I think over a period of two to three years, they helped us move to bigger quarters until we got really a beautiful family care center, with their assistance. They were very, very generous in helping us start it, so we called it the Goppert Family Care Center.\n\nCan you tell us a little more about the Gopperts?\n\nYes, Vita and Clarence Goppert were bankers. Vita was his second wife. His first wife had passed on. They had a whole slew of small town banks. I served on their Board of Directors here in Kansas City and I didn’t know them very much but I used the bank for my own personal banking. They support many educational endeavors. They supported Avila College, here in Kansas City and they support other endeavors. They have supported the Shepherd’s Center too, they gave us money to do some videotapes to describe what the Shepherd’s Center is all about. Unfortunately Clarence has since passed on but Vita, his wife, still does some philanthropic stuff for Avila College.\n\nI wanted to follow up on one other thing. You’d mentioned in the early years you were trying to get approval and talking to all the different departments in the medical center. The only one apparently you ran into some resistance with initially was Pediatrics, you mentioned. What wee their reservations? \n\nI don’t know, Pediatrics felt that we were in competition with them and in reality, it’s true. Many of the general pediatricians, at the time that I started the program, they saw just general pediatrics. If there was any child that had a serious illness, that child would be shipped down to Children’s Mercy Hospital and I think they felt that maybe we were even competing with their general aspects of pediatrics. They felt like they could do a better job but I think it was a personality thing more than anything else. They never had any trouble with getting adequate pediatric experience down at Children’s Mercy Hospital. Our residents are well received down there. They get a substantial amount of pediatric training.\n\nHow was it eventually resolved? \n\nIt resolved with time. In fact, the one who spoke against it vehemently become one of my greatest supporters.\n\nAfter 20 years there, you then became Vice President for Medical Affairs at the Baptist Medical Center, is that right? \n\nRight. We have a mandatory law at the Baptist Medical Center that you have to retire at age 70 and the hospital is anticipating a hospital accreditation assessment every three years or less, the hospital would have to go through the accrediting process. It’s a very tedious process to get all the material and be able to answer all the questions on the application. Since I knew so much about Baptist Medical Center, the administrator asked if I would be willing to step down before ’96 to help in the accreditation process but he wanted me to become the Vice President for Medical Affairs so I could work with the staff to get this thing done. I agreed I would do that. I could say that we passed the accreditation with flying colors. I still felt like I’d like to continue to be involved. I felt like mandatory 70 was what I had to do and I accepted that.\n\nYou mentioned before that the Goppert Center is really the thing you’re proudest of in your career. Out of all the things you’ve done, that’s the one you’re proudest of? \n\nYes. The residency program itself with the Goppert Family Care Center because as I said, I really enjoyed seeing residents come through and developing and becoming very competent, quality, caring physicians and when you see that as they develop, it really is heartwarming. Being a good teacher, there’s a lot of agony for some of the things but you have that ecstasy when you finally see the final product and it’s good, makes you feel very worthwhile.\n\nAny last thoughts on the Goppert Center? \n\nNo, I think I’d like to see them continue since Baptist Hospital itself has been closed but the residency program still is affiliated with Research Medical Center. When Health Corporation of America took over all the 14 hospitals in Kansas City that belonged to Midwest Hospitals, they had too many beds so Baptist and Trinity Hospital were closed down. But the family practice program is still as strong as ever and they utilize Research Medical Center now for their hospital services and stuff, so it continues and it continues to grow and they continue to do very well.\n\nEven though you’re retired now, you still have some involvement in it, you still have some contact with it? \n\nOh yes, I still have some input with Dr. Rues, who is the Director now. He was my protégé. Also, we found out, I didn’t tell you this before, but Dr. Rues had a coronary about six months ago and so he’s stepping down as Director but can still stay on as a clinician. Another graduate, Steve Salinsky is taking over the directorship and he will do a superb job. There’s a continuation of people that were residents with my training and they’re not in a directorship, which I feel very proud of.\n\nWhen you look back over all your years as a family doc and all your involvement in family medicine, what are your fondest memories? \n\nMy solo practice as a family physician I think was most enjoyable and for 20 years, I had excellent support in the office with my two individuals. They were sisters and this Joanne Molhowsky was my nurse that got to know all my patients and her sister, Barbara. Incidentally, Barbara was my receptionist for some 25 years. The sad thing I want to tell you about is both of them joined me in the residency training program and came along with me and Joanne continued, even after I left, but Barbara, the day I gave up my directorship to become Vice President for Medical Affairs, she had a stroke and about a week or so later, she died. That was the saddest thing that ever happened to me.  \n\nGoing back to my practice, I had a wonderful nuclear family practice. I took care of a lot of families and it was enjoyable and I did make some house calls, as I said before. Having the students with me in the last ten years was kind of fun too. Another interesting thing was, I brought along a clinical psychologist, Dr. Hewitt, who joined my office practice for about ten years before I moved over to becoming a residency director and he came along too. He became the chief psychologist for not only the residents, but also the faculty and their patients. Overall, I think we give good quality care to our patients and we got to know them pretty well. It was pretty informal and it was really a great experience. Patients and people have some expectations of their family doctor, that that doctor will be reasonably available, accessible, for any emergencies or when they really need to have a question answered and stuff and we always gave that openly and willingly. For that reason, I really never had any night calls where people would call you up. In fact, I used to admonish my patients because they were so considerate that they wouldn’t call sometimes when they were ill. I bring that point up because that’s not the way it is today. Again, people ask me how is it different? I think unfortunately, to some extent, whether it’s due to the physicians or whether it’s due to the system, I think our present system is chaotic and some people say it’s for a variety of reasons but when I talk to a lot of elder groups that I do with the Shepherd’s Center, I ask them what’s good about American medicine and only a few hands will go up. They say, we’ve got some very significant technology and some things that we can do now that we couldn’t even think about doing here even five or ten years ago and it’s true. Then I ask them, what’s not so good about American medicine, and let me tell you, practically all the hands go up and they have such comments as, it’s too expensive, the doctors don’t have enough time, they interrupt you before you can finish anything, they seem to be in such a hurry, they don’t seem to care like they used to and on and on. I asked them, how many of you have a family doctor or personal doctor? Many, many hands go up. I ask, do you like your doctor? It’s almost 100% they like their doctor but they say things have changed. I say, what do you think we could do about it? They don’t have a lot of ideas except if they would just have listened a little bit longer, maybe it would be better. These are things I hear and I believe that commitment to take care of the patients, I think is not the same as when I was in practice. I’m not saying that’s good or bad, I’m just saying it’s different. The new generation, I think for a variety of reasons and I can’t blame them for that, don’t want to be workaholics like we were. That was part of the acceptance of that time and it’s not that way anymore. Unfortunately I think with the new FFM, the Future of Family Medicine, this tremendous input or looking at a new concept for family medicine, it’s got some wonderful ideas and such things as patient-centered, rather than physician-centered. I think that’s a marvelous concept. I think we probably were more into being patient-centered than they are today. Unfortunately, in our country, everything is geared around the comfort and the physicians, for his convenience. People who work and are on hourly wage can’t sometimes lose a whole day going to see a physician, if they can get in. Being accessible and available a little bit more easily, I think would be helpful too. So patient-centered is an excellent idea.\n\nSome of the other recommendations, such as being a medical home for the patients, so that the patient would always know there would be somebody or somehow that they can get in and see somebody as easy as they possibly can, would be another excellent idea. Having identified what they call the basket of services, that means the things a family doctor would do for them, along with having the kind of emphasis on the quality kind of record keeping, electronic medical records that would allow people that have categorical diseases like hypertension, diabetes, what have you, could be monitored more carefully and I think be able to get better quality of care. All the things that have been recommended, I don’t remember all of them, but I always keep that Future of Family Medicine, that Annals in front of me to kind of review it periodically. I think they’re all excellent ideas. That means that hopefully we’ll get back to the fact that family practice must remember that its success is built on service and if you don’t give service, you’re not a family doctor, in my opinion. That means you have to be reasonably available and accessible when really needed, or at least have somebody that’s equally competent to do the same. I think the future for family medicine, I think is great. It’s even better than it’s ever been with the new recommendations but there’s one thing that I think has to be done and it still wasn’t completely done when we became a specialty back in 1969, that somehow or other we’ve got to inform the public what this new concept is going to be and how it’s going to be delivered to them. Unless the public knows about this, it could be the greatest idea in the world if it’s not going to be utilized or accepted and I think we’re going to have a difficult time of implementing this whole conceptual idea.\n\nAnything you’d like to add about either the state of the future of family medicine or healthcare in America? \n\nAgain, healthcare in America is indeed getting more problematic. First of all, the cost to take care of people, we spend more money than any country in the world and when you look at the record, unfortunately, we don’t do very well in a lot of areas. Some of those are understandable. Our obstetrical and births and deaths don’t do very well. There’s always some reason and some explanations for some of that, but I think if we spend more time and more effort in the primary care sector, I think we probably would be better off in the long run. I’m not knocking down anything that the subspecialty people do or the technology, but I’m saying that we probably could do a lot of things for people rather than to people.\n\nLet’s go on to your retirement now. You’re retired, what are you doing now? \n\nSince I retired, I had the opportunity to do a lot of reading and I got really interested in some articles related to JAMA back in ’99, where there was a great emphasis in talking about functional health literacy, that half the people in our country don’t really understand what is said in a doctor’s office, can’t understand what’s written on a prescription pad or how to take medication and how to prepare yourself for special tests. Anyway, I got real kind of interested in health literacy because of my experience as a director of a residency program. We used to videotape every one of our first-year encounters. We’d watch the encounter take place because if the doctor went in with the young resident, the patients would usually talk to the older guy so we found out that if we videotaped the encounter, we could learn a great deal about how the doctor does in communicating with the patient. The patients, we all got their permission, we never exposed anybody so it was well received, both by the patient and after we tried it a couple of times, with the residents. The experience I learned is that physicians, doctors think they communicate very well with patients but they really don’t. I recall one of my residents who was talking to one of my old patients, he was a schoolteacher and he was seeing her. She said, she would like to see him, so he went in there and started talking to her and he examined her. He was talking to her and smiling and they were having this conversation back and forth and when he came out and came over to me and said, how do you think I did? I said, well, I don’t know, how do you think you did? He said, I think I did pretty well. I said, you stay here, let me go back and talk to her. So I went in there and I talked to her. Her name was Mabel. I said, Mabel, did you like that doctor? She said, oh, he was wonderful, he was very clean-cut and seemed to be very smart and interested. I said, did you understand anything he said? She said, I didn’t have a clue. I said, why didn’t you ask? She said, I’m a schoolteacher, I didn’t want to feel like a dummy. Besides, I didn’t know what to ask.  \n\nThat started me thinking again about what’s taking place in the geriatric area and my association with the Shepherd’s Centers of America, I have to remember a program when I was with the American Board of Family Medicine, that they had a program called Partners in Health, which is a senior educational group and the whole idea of this program was to teach older people how to communicate and how to be assertive and how to get the most value out of an office visit when they go see the doctor, how to prepare themselves to visit the doctor and getting all ready about bringing a list of all your medications, talking about the myths of aging and a whole variety of other things, including how to prepare yourself for the final days. This program was a very successful program back in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s but it was shelved because it was too expensive to produce and deliver. I remember that program so I called the Board and asked if I could have that program. Can I use it and modify it? They gave me full permission to do so and that’s what I’ve been doing since 2000. We’ve modified this program and we’ve visited over 6500 participants in the Kansas City area, we’ve been to over 75 venues, we’ve been to every senior group from the Shepherd’s Center in Kansas City to some of the lowest echelon groups that had the lowest economics and the ones of the affluent society. They all improved with this program. We do a little pre-test and post-test. The thing that they like the best is when they complete the program, we give them a little passport that contains all the information that’s current of their medical conditions that they can keep with them. It has a list of all their medicines, their allergies, who to call if they need a physician. All the essential elements so that if they leave down or if they’re out someplace and they faint, that information that’s vital to their health is in their possession. We’ve had about three major grants to do this program and we just submitted another one just here last week. I plan to continue doing this program. I utilize a guy by the name of Rusty Ryan, who is a clinical pharmacologist, who’s an expert on all the medications and we’ve learned to do this dog and pony show for the last six years and we both enjoy it very much. This is all voluntary. I plan to continue doing that. In fact, I have other retired family doctors helping us, Dr. Tom Nicholas and Dr. Don Potts, who just joined me. We plan to get several more retired physicians and continue doing this kind of program.\n\nAny plans to go national with it? \n\nYes. I think this could be the greatest PR for the family physician, the new family physicians of the future so we could have the opportunity to discuss who we are, what we do and what the new family doctor of the future is going to be like.\n\nOne last question before we wrap it up. All the years of practice, all the many offices you’ve had, what would you say was the secret to your success? What made you so successful?\n\nI think it’s being enthusiastic about what you do. As you can see, when I start talking about Partners in Health, or the residency program, I get enthusiastic. I put all my effort into something that I believe in. If I enjoy it, it’s even more exciting. Family medicine is exciting. Taking care of people is not only fun but it’s exciting. If somebody goes into family medicine and doesn’t like people, they’ve got a problem. I think the greatest thing that I think is important is to have a supportive partner. My wife and I have now been together for 58 years and we look forward to our 60th anniversary.\n\nAny last thoughts you’d like to add? This is your opportunity to share your thoughts with future generations. \n\nIn having this interview and looking back at all the things that I’ve been privileged to be associated with, all these organizations, it sort of is blurry when I’m asked specific questions about certain things. I have to sort of relive some of that area and I’m sure, in my explanation on many of these questions that were asked of me or as I discussed, are probably not totally correct. Please accept my apologies for being a little fuzzy in some of the responses. Otherwise, it’s been fun and I enjoyed talking about my past and hopefully I’ve still got a few years left for the future and doing what I’m doing in that program called Partners in Health.\n\nThank you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283334#t=0.0,1689.41821"}]}]},{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283336","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 3 of 4 - Stelmach_Jack_Pt3_06_a.wav"]},"duration":2338.88034,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283336/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283336/content/3/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/283/336/original/Stelmach_Jack_Pt3_06_a.wav?1753285613","type":"Audio","format":"audio/wav","duration":2338.88034,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283336","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]},{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283337","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 4 of 4 - Stelmach_Jack_Pt3_06_b.wav"]},"duration":2386.29358,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283337/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283337/content/4/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/283/337/original/Stelmach_Jack_Pt3_06_b.wav?1753285613","type":"Audio","format":"audio/wav","duration":2386.29358,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/154136/file/283337","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]}]}