{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/iiif/wp9t14ws4c/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Dr. Kenneth Evans"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/246/original/CenterForHistoryFamilyMedicine_2c_RGB.png?1773344256","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e Dr. Evans is a retired family physician who completed a general practice residency and grandfathered into family medicine. Most of his career was in Oklahoma. After his residency program and two years in the Air Force he started in private practice in Oklahoma. After five years in practice he moved to Wichita, Kansas, to help fix problems in a family medicine residency program. From there he practiced family medicine in Shattuck, OK, then moved to Oklahoma City to help start a family medicine residency program. He was there for 10 years, then started another family medicine residency program in Lawton, OK. That was his last career position, and he retired and did locum tenens for several years. His \"restlessness\" and his moves were of real value to the discipline. His leadership in family medicine included president of the Oklahoma Academy of Family Physicians, chairman of the board of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and president of the AAFP Foundation. One of his proudest accomplishments was leading the AAFP endorsement of the Clinton Health Care Plan in the 1990s. He was also instrumental in building a substantial endowment for the AAFP Foundation. \u003cbr\u003e Location: Oklahoma \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c/p\u003e (summary)"]}},{"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":["2008-09-16 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":["Sandy Panther (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["audio file"]}},{"label":{"en":["Keyword"]},"value":{"en":["family medicine","family physician","American Academy of Family Physicians"]}},{"label":{"en":["Subject"]},"value":{"en":["Kenneth L. Evans, MD (personal name)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":["English (primary)"]}}],"summary":{"en":["\u003cp\u003e Dr. Evans is a retired family physician who completed a general practice residency and grandfathered into family medicine. Most of his career was in Oklahoma. After his residency program and two years in the Air Force he started in private practice in Oklahoma. After five years in practice he moved to Wichita, Kansas, to help fix problems in a family medicine residency program. From there he practiced family medicine in Shattuck, OK, then moved to Oklahoma City to help start a family medicine residency program. He was there for 10 years, then started another family medicine residency program in Lawton, OK. That was his last career position, and he retired and did locum tenens for several years. His \"restlessness\" and his moves were of real value to the discipline. His leadership in family medicine included president of the Oklahoma Academy of Family Physicians, chairman of the board of the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP), and president of the AAFP Foundation. One of his proudest accomplishments was leading the AAFP endorsement of the Clinton Health Care Plan in the 1990s. He was also instrumental in building a substantial endowment for the AAFP Foundation.\u0026nbsp;\u003cbr /\u003e Location: Oklahoma\u0026nbsp;\u003cbr /\u003e\u003cbr /\u003e\u003c/p\u003e"]},"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/152988/file/281574","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 2 - Evans_Kenneth_08_a.wav"]},"duration":2582.89185,"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/152988/file/281574/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/152988/file/281574/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/281/574/original/Evans_Kenneth_08_a.wav?1752068847","type":"Audio","format":"audio/wav","duration":2582.89185,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/152988/file/281574","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/152988/file/281574/transcript/81597","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["Dr. Kenneth Evans interview transcript  [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/152988/file/281574/transcript/81597/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"Side One, Tape One, interview with Kenneth L. Evans, MD by Sandy Panther. We have discussed and you are approving audiotaping your oral history for the AAFP Foundation?  \n\nThat is correct.\n\nI would like to start with the beginnings of your life – when you were born, a little bit about your parents and what they did. And then brothers, sisters and growing up.\n\nI was born the 23rd day of September, 1942 in Fort Worth, Texas. My dad was a carpenter and contractor throughout his career and was at that point working in Fort Worth. My dad is Ralph Lee Evans and my mother is Helen Giblin. And she was a homemaker all of her career. Neither one had a full high school education. I think Mom got through about the tenth, eleventh grade and Dad got through about the eleventh grade during the Depression. Early on during his career times were very, very difficult and he and my mom and older brother spent a lot of time in Colorado where he would work on high bridges and dams because that’s the only jobs he could find. And Mom used to tell stories about how they would come into a little town and Dad would find someplace for them to stay, usually about 50 cents, 75 cents a night. And then he would go to work and Mom would stay home with my older brother, Donnie, who was just a baby at that point. But they had a really pretty tough time for the first few years of their marriage. But the marriage lasted up until the death of both of them.\n\nAnd you have one brother?\n\n\nTwo brothers. I have an older brother who is about four years older than me and a younger brother who is about three to four years younger than me. And I have a sister who is about five to six years younger than me.  \n\nSo you come from a larger family.\n\nYes. There was a very large, extended family most of my growing up. There were uncles, aunts and people all around. Most of the brothers were all carpenters and contractors.  \n\nWhat made you elect to go a different direction? \n\nI never remember a time when I wasn’t going to go to college because Mom valued education extremely highly. One of the biggest disappointments in her life was that she was unable to have an education like she wanted, so they both supported me. So I was going to college, whatever it took. And I was the first person in my family to get a college degree.\n\nI know that you are married. If you could, tell me a little bit about Ruth Ann and how you met and then children. \n\nIt’s a funny story that I’ve told for years. I was in college at the time and didn’t really know what I was going to be. But I went on wheat harvest one summer. I don’t know if you know about wheat harvest, but nice girls don’t date harvest hands because they’re just going to be there a few days and be gone. However, as it turned out Ruth Ann was the best friend of the son who was doing the harvesting. And he was engaged to be married and his marriage fell through, never happened, but I met Ruth Ann and began to date her long distance while I was in college and she was in Seiling, Oklahoma which is about 100 miles ahead. And I kept finding ways to get back out there. And our relationship grew and in 1962 we got married.\n\nAnd you have how many children and their names, please? \n\nWe have three children. The oldest is Jason. He is now right at forty and he is a foreign service officer with the State Department. He is currently stationed in Cyprus. Our middle child is Justin and he is in Houston. He has a master’s degree in geology and works for Exxon-Mobil at this point. Our daughter was actually adopted when she was five days old. She also got a master’s degree and worked as a drug rep for about seven years. She married a young man she met in college who was a basketball player. He was a very good basketball player but was not good enough to make the team. Mostly he was the one who went in when the game was just about over. But he had established long-term relationships with a number of the basketball players and with Eddie Sutton and with Shawn Sutton and he and Janie still come back for basketball games and football games. He works with the Crop Production Association which is a very large chemical and herbicide application firm. And he has now worked his way up to be in charge of I believe twenty what you call units, which is very good for his age. And he has made outstanding progress and they are both doing fine. They lived in Illinois for a number of years and he was recently transferred to Garden City, Kansas which is where they live now.\n\nWhich is closer to Mom and Dad?\n\nYes, a lot closer.  \n\nHow many grandchildren do you have? \n\nRight now we have six and one on the way. Each one of our children have two offspring. And we just found out that Jason, our oldest, they are pregnant and due sometime in March with our seventh grandchild. \n\nAnd they’re the ones in Cyprus? \n\nThat’s correct.\n\nIs there anything in your childhood or anybody that was a real role model for you or any stories you want to tell about growing up? \n\nI grew up in a very small community. When I was six years of age we moved to Oklahoma and I’ve lived in Oklahoma since then for the most part. I think my biggest role model was my dad.  He was one of the people always in the community who wherever he was, he was a leader. He had a capability to meet people very effectively and wherever he went, in addition to earning a living, he was a deacon in the church, he worked for long periods of time as a counselor with AA. He did not have an alcohol problem himself but he worked for long periods of time doing that. And one of the stories I like to tell is early in my career he sent me to the lumberyard, as I was working for him. I didn’t know much about the lumberyard and I walked in and said “I need to get some stuff for Ralph Evans, can you get it?” And the guy in the lumberyard said “Ralph Evans can have the lumberyard if he wants it.”  \n\nThat’s respect.\n\nYes, and that was the respect he had throughout his career and his life. And I think he was my biggest role model, just to try to live up to the respect that people showed him. Because he was who he was, very honest and dependable. And if he said something, it was going to happen. I am extremely lucky because my whole extended family was the same way. There was never anyone in my family that if I needed something, I didn’t feel that I could turn to them. And that is a very, very good, solid foundation just knowing that and feeling that. And as I got out into the world I didn’t know how rare that was until I got much older and grew up and really began to understand what I had and was very proud of.  \n\nYou went to high school? \n\nIn a small community, Greenville High School. It really wasn’t a community; it was an old WPA building built in the 30s. And there was a very small little grocery store and the school was across the road. That was the community. There were thirteen people in my high school graduating class and we had the largest class for about ten years.\n\nAnd then did you immediately go on to college? \n\nI was fortunate, between my junior and senior years of high school I was selected for a new program they had and I was able to get eight hours of college credit in summer school. Stayed in summer school continuously and had one summer that I did not go to school and that was the summer I met Ruth Ann. The rest of the time I went continuously, summer school and regular classes, and was able to graduate in about three and one-half years.  \n\nAnd the school you graduated from?\n\nOklahoma State University.  \n\nAnd your major was? \n\nMy major was pre-medical science. I decided about halfway through my career that that’s really what I wanted to be. I thought about it a long time – and if I didn’t get into medical school I don’t know what I would have done because I didn’t really have a backup. I was very naive and just never doubted that I could do it. And I was very fortunate to be able to do it.\n\nDid you continue at Oklahoma State for medical school? \n\nNo, at that point there was only one medical school in the state and that was Oklahoma University, University of Oklahoma School of Medicine, and that’s where I graduated.  \n\nDo you have any stories at all that are fun on your undergraduate or graduate work? \n\nIt really was just family, mundane and working towards what I wanted to be. I don’t remember any particular stories.\n\nAt what point did you decide you wanted to go into family medicine? \n\nAs I was getting close to graduating, my best friend was L.A. Myers...I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon. And then when I looked at what I wanted to do, I didn’t want to be a general practitioner, I wanted to get some extra education. But family medicine was just coming on board and getting started. As a matter of fact, when I got through and was ready to go into residency, at that point there were only three active family practice residencies ongoing. So the three were going, and I didn’t know specifically what family medicine was but I knew that I wanted to get more education than just general practitioner. So I ended up doing three years of a general practice residency and I planned to be a family physician. My residency was interrupted by two years in the Air Force. I called the residency program and said I want to be a family physician. By this time there were several residencies going on. And at John Peter Smith they said yes, if you will come back we are prepared and approved to give you a family practice residency. So I got out of the Air Force, went back and discovered that they were not, in fact, a family practice residency, they were a general practice residency still. The guy who had given me the okay that he could do that actually had committed suicide about two months before I got back. So I ended up doing three years of general practice residency and came in through the grandfather program to family practice.  \n\nTell me a little bit about the military and why that occurred, when it occurred. \n\nI don’t know if you are familiar with the Berry Plan. At that point, Vietnam was just really getting started and I was really very active. And there was not a doctor draft but there was a Berry Plan that allowed you to, at the discretion of the family, do an internship in the military or do an internship and partially train for two years and then come into the Air Force or military or a full residency training. And that was called the Berry Plan and they selected who they wanted to do each of these three things. And I ended up getting a two-year deferral for residency and then went into the Air Force for two years and came back to finish my third year. There wasn’t a doctor draft but I do remember one man who came in the second year I was there who hadn’t signed up for the draft, and he said they won’t draft me, I’m in medical school, in residency. Well, lo and behold, they sent him a letter saying you shall report to Wichita Falls, Texas for training as a private in the military. So he jumped up and ran down and signed up for the Berry Plan and they allowed him to do so. So there wasn’t a doctor draft, but if you didn’t go they would draft you for rifleman, and that was not what I wanted to be.  \n\nDid you have to go overseas at all? \n\nNo, I was very fortunate. I decided to become a flight surgeon. Applied for flight surgery school and was accepted. And the first day of flight surgery school the gentleman on the stage said “Gentlemen, eleven weeks from now one-half of you will be in Vietnam.” And they sent me my orders for Albuquerque and I said how fast do you want me to be there? So I spent my two-year tour of duty in Albuquerque.  \n\nAs a flight surgeon did you receive wounded soldiers back from Vietnam?\n\nNo, a flight surgeon actually was not a surgeon. They were more of a general practice type of physician who cared for people who were on flying status. And my job was taking care of people who were on flying status who were basically the healthiest people in the world because if you got sick, you went off flying status. But as part of my training I had to fly with my crews because as a flight surgeon you are also responsible for a large portion of flight safety. So Albuquerque was what was called a weapons development base. And instead of being a huge Air Force base or a cargo base, they actually developed weapons. So we ended up with two aircraft of each of the planes that the U.S. had at that time. And I got to fly in F104s, F100s, and F4s as well as numerous cargo type of aircraft and bombers. So I got to fly in nearly everything the Air Force had, which was really a lot of fun. I thought very seriously about staying in the Air Force but I had already decided that I wanted to be a family physician. So when I got out I went ahead and went back for my third year of training in general practice.\n\nDid serving in the Air Force have any effect on your future life? \n\nI think it did. I got a lot of experience dealing with people and dealing with pilots. And I think it gave me a much broader perspective on what the world was like because nearly all the pilots I flew with were high time Vietnam veterans. They had a choice before they went based on what the military needed. So the guys that I flew with were just high time Vietnam vets. One of them tried out for the Air Force, like the Navy Blue Angels. When they select people they have about 100 slots, 100 people who come in. And they check them, and he was the last person who got to go home. So he was an excellent pilot and I flew with him quite a bit.  \n\nLet’s go on to when you were finished with your residency. What was the world of medicine like when you first came out?\n\nIt was very interesting in that a great number of people who were general practitioners had a single year of internship and then went into practice. Family practice was just getting started good and basically looked down on mostly because if you didn’t get a residency, if you were not some type of super specialist then you were not in the higher standards or higher standing as a physician. So I was able to get started in family practice early on but it was just getting started and you really had to fight for privileges. And you really had to be careful what you were doing because you were looked down on quite a bit. And I was able to grow up with that through the Academy and it had just an outstanding opportunity and an outstanding capability of watching and playing a part, in some small part, of the development and growth of family practice.  \n\nWhere did you first go when you got out of school?\n\nI moved to John Peter Smith Hospital which is in Fort Worth. And it was renowned for the difficulty of the residency and the number of patients that you saw and the things that you saw. It was like Parkland Hospital or King County on the west coast or that kind of a residency. Just everything came in through the doors. We were the only charity beds for 750,000 people in Tarrant County, Fort Worth.  \n\nAnd then when you graduated from your residency did you go into private practice? \n\nWent into private practice in Kingfisher, Oklahoma as a family physician and was there for four and a half years. After I was there two or three years, I began to say I think I’m getting behind. I didn’t feel like I was keeping up with what I could do and what I was capable of doing. So an opportunity in residency came open in Wichita, Kansas. And the residency there was one of the best residencies, and still is: St. Joseph’s in Wichita, Kansas. I went there and they had some problems because all of the faculty had resigned in a dispute with the administration of the hospital. And I went there as the only full-time faculty for a residency of twelve residents, four year. When I got there the residency program, because they had no faculty, there was a major disturbance, a major disagreement between the residents and the administration of the hospital, and it was my job to sort of straighten it out. And being as naive as I was, I thought I could do it. But I went there and over the next two and a half years was able to straighten it out. When I got there they were on probation and would be shut down the next year if they didn’t smooth things out and change them. And I left there two and a half years after I got there and they had a full three-year accreditation. During that period of time there happened to be two young physicians who were starting a practice in Wellington, Kansas, one of whom happened to be Larry Anderson. Each one of them would come two and a half days a week and help as faculty and that’s where I first met Larry Anderson who later was also on the Board and I think was Vice President of the Academy. I’ve known him for many, many years.  \n\nSo you eventually became Director there?   \n\nActually, I didn’t become Director. We had a major dispute with the university. The University of Kansas was wanting to take over the residency program and we had three residencies in Wichita and all did different things. What we did we did best and what they did they did best. So we ended up in a major dispute of the residency being subsumed by the University of Kansas which we didn’t want. I raised enough Cain and that sort of stuff that actually I resigned after being there two and a half years. But when I left they had a full three-year accreditation and the program was well-established and going. And at one time a few years later every officer in the state of Kansas at that point had been in the residency program that I was managing. I don’t remember exactly what year that was without looking it over. But every one of the officers of the Kansas Academy of Family Physicians had been in the residency program at St. Joseph while I was there. So there was a really good residency program with really, really fine young physicians.\n\nYou said you were there two years. Then where did your career take you?\n\nMy best friend that I mentioned, L.A. Myers, had gone to Shattuck, Oklahoma which was a town of 1500 people. There was a hospital there run by some brothers, the Newman brothers, and the father. And they were contemporaries of the Mayo brothers and knew them well. And each one of the physicians at that point went back every year to the Mayo Clinic for a six-week program of whatever they were interested in. So the hospital at that point had a reputation throughout the Southwest as being the best hospital that you could get into in this small town of 1800 people. I went there and was the first full-time family physician to be there. All the rest of the physicians, we had general surgeons, we had an ob/gyn physician, an internist all in a town of 1500 people with 114 bed hospital. And that’s where I spent the majority of my practice career.  \n\nI noticed by your C.V. that you were there until 1991. Where did you go? \n\nUnfortunately, my children have always accused me of not being able to hold a job. After I have been somewhere for a while I just sort of get itchy feet. I really wanted to get back into academic medicine. And it just so happened that a few friends of mine were starting a new program at St. Anthony’s Hospital in Oklahoma City and asked me if I would come and be one of the faculty. And I decided to do that, so I went with them. There were four of us actually that started the program. And I stayed there for about ten, twelve years. And then I went to the residency program in St. Anthony’s and that’s where I was when I got on the Board of Directors of the AAFP.  \n\nWas that your final then…\n\nNo. After I got off the Board of Directors I once again sort of had itchy feet. I had done that and I really didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I was looking around and the University of Oklahoma was trying to form a new residency program in Lawton, Oklahoma. And the department chair, a good friend of mine, asked me if I would go down and start the program. And I said I will start the program, Steve. But knowing me, after about five or six years I will not be able to continue because it’s not something that I really wanted to do. I wanted to get back into academic medicine but I knew that administration probably wasn’t my high point. But I did. I went back and joined them and we started the residency program and it still is in existence. One of the better programs, I like to think, in the country. I went down to Lawton, which is a town I had never been to before, and I drove in and didn’t know anybody and was able to find an office space to start at Cameron University, which is a small university there in town. And they gave me an office in the basement of the math department and that’s where I started developing the Southwest Oklahoma Family Practice Residency Program.  \n\nAnd did you stay there then for five or six years? \n\nI stayed there about five and a half years and then decided that I was getting sort of close to being ready to do something else. So I semi-retired and went into doing locum tenens work, which I had started doing for about four or five years. And then currently, at this point, failing retirement for about the fourth or fifth time.\n\nAre you still doing the locum tenens some? \n\nYes, I did some locum tenens. About the only thing I’m doing now is I go down to the residency program in Lawton as a part-time faculty member two and a half days a week. I do that for about six months and then dunk for a while. Then they will need somebody so I will go back. And I’m scheduled to go back in November for a couple of weeks. So I’m doing part-time faculty in the residency program that I established.\n\nOf all of your career what position did you enjoy the most? \n\nI think the thing that I enjoyed the most, was the hardest, was developing both of the programs. The St. Anthony’s program and the one in Lawton. I think they were the most rewarding although sometimes were the most frustrating and most difficult. But I feel like I was able to contribute and do some significant things that I really enjoy doing. I really enjoy teaching. And I did find out that after about four or five years as an administrator, that’s about all the administrative work I really wanted to do.\n\nIs there a least favorite career? \n\nNo, I don’t think so. I think each of the times that I changed, it was a new thing. And I think the thing I enjoyed the most was doing some new things and being able to develop programs. And it’s sort of fun now to look out and see some of the physicians here in Oklahoma and know that I had a small part in training a significant number of them.\n\nI will ask a philosophical question that one always asks: If you could start all over again and do things differently, what would you change? \n\nNot much. I don’t know that I would change a great deal of anything. Like I said, I’ve had some frustrating times, but the frustrating times also help you grow. I think I’m fairly happy with what I’ve done.\n\nDo you have any particular people that you have worked with over the years that really impressed you and have become lifelong memories? \n\nYes, several people. One being Larry Anderson, and I was able to get to know him very well and then meet him again as we got on the Board and up in the offices of the Foundation. He is a very close personal friend and has been for a long time. And really the most outstanding thing, I think, are the people that I have been able to meet and get to know. And I’ve found that family physicians are family physicians wherever they are. For the most part, they are extremely helpful, dedicated people. And that really sort of kept me going, knowing that we have that quality of people that we are dealing with.\n\nAny memories of particular residents? \n\nYes, several of them. One is Dan Criswell who was a resident at St. Joseph, which is the first place I went in academic medicine. Dan actually came back to me. He had done some industrial medicine and several things over several years. And when I started the program he was the first person I hired. He came in and said I want to get into academic medicine, so I hired him. And he was a friend that I had known off and on for a number of years but has become a very close personal friend since I started the program down at Lawton. He is now the program director there in Lawton.  \n\nI will start now with your experiences with the two state chapters I which you were a member. \n\nI got started with the [American Academy of] Family Physicians primarily because I wanted to be involved with family physicians and I knew I wanted to participate in organized medicine. I forget what the problem was, but I had a couple of problems that I needed some help with and the AMA, I called them and you never got an answer or a result or anything. And I said I’ll call the Family Physicians. So I called the Family Physicians and someone answered the phone and they didn’t put me off. They answered my question. And every time I called them they were helpful. And I think Roger Tusken was Executive Director at that time. And just the way they did things I really appreciated, so I said I think I want to be a part of this organization. And that’s where I sort of started and have been with the Family Physicians in some capacity ever since.  \n\nNow in Oklahoma specifically, which was your longest tenure with a chapter, what positions did you serve on? \n\nBasically everything. I was on numerous committees and was Vice President and President of the Oklahoma Academy. I was Family Physician of the Year for the Oklahoma Academy one year. And basically there aren’t any positions they had that I didn’t serve in.  \n\nAt what year did you run for the national Board? You were a delegate, is that correct? \n\nThat’s correct. I was a delegate to the AAFP [Congress of Delegates]. And Ken Whittington was on the Board of Directors. One of the former Presidents, and his name has slipped my mind, I was thinking about running for the Board. And we were out one morning early at one of the Oklahoma Academy meetings and we were talking and I mentioned that I might be interested, and he said go for it. I said gee, I don’t have the experience or the knowledge of what to do. He said that’s alright, go for it. And so I did. And fortunately I was elected to be a member of the Board of Directors through his help. And Ken Whittington’s help as always been very helpful throughout my career. So I was able to be elected to the Board of Directors.  \n\nAnd that was in 1993, to refresh your memory. So that was a three-year term. What were your positions? Did you serve on committees? \n\nI served on several committees. The committee structure changed some while I was there and afterwards. But I was on several of the commissions. My first committee was the Committee on Drugs and Devices. And I was very active on the Rural Health Committee. After I got onto the Board of Directors I was chairman of [the Commissions on] Public Health and Scientific Affairs and Health Care Services. Those were the two major ones that I was involved in.  \n\nAnd you also held some leadership positions? \n\nYes. In my third year on the Board of Directors I was elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors. And I think that was one of the real high points of my career. I really, really enjoyed that. I don’t know how effective I was but I like to think that I had some role.  \n\nDuring that time you also started your tenure on the [AAFP] Foundation Board. Because you were on that Board with several different organizations – in other words, most of us go through a four-year term but you were on the Board a long time.   \n\nI really enjoyed that period of time. Actually, I went on first as a member of Rural Health. I was on the Rural Health Committee of the AAFP and was able to get appointed to the Foundation as a member of the Rural Health Committee. And then served my time on that and came back as a member-at-large. And then ended up coming back when I was on the Board of Directors as a representative of the Foundation. And served as an At-large member but not as a Network member. And was able to be elected to the President of that organization and spent the next year or two there. So I’ve been on three, I believe, four-year terms and then an extra two years as the President.\n\nComparing the two organizations, the Academy and the Foundation, were there any critical decisions that were made during your tenure on either of the organizations? \n\nI’ve thought about this a lot. I think the thing that I’m the most proud of on the Board of Directors of the AAFP was – as the [U.S.] President put forth his health care plan...The Academy was actively involved and was one of the first organizations to basically come out and say we need a form of national health. We need everyone to have a family physician. I took a lot of heat for that on the Board. It was my first year on the Board that all this came out with Clinton. When Clinton brought his health care program there was a lot of flaws with it and a lot of difficulties with it. But we came out in principle as supporting it. As saying we need some form of health care so that everyone can have health care. And since that time the Academy has continued in one form or another with several different iterations of plans to actively support very vocally and verbally the need for health care reform in this country. And I was very fortunate in my first year on the Board to be a part of the first actual plan in that direction. Even though it failed and it was flawed in many ways, we have continued to work with it and deal with it and continued to be an outspoken advocate that everyone needs to have health care.  \n\nAnd on the Foundation Board? \n\nMost of the time that I was on the Foundation it was sort of a pay-as-you-go. We didn’t have a significant corpus or endowment. We sort of spent the money as we raised it. And myself along with several of the Presidents really worked diligently to establish a large enough endowment to allow the Foundation to do some significant things. To become a real Foundation and not just a pass-through for whatever money we could raise that year. And I think that, to me, is the biggest thing. We ended up, I believe, with a $5 million endowment by the time I went off the Board for the last time. And I think that has really gotten us started and allowed the Foundation to continue to have a significant endowment and to do programs and to do things that hopefully are for the betterment of the health care of this country.  \n\nSo the two things that I guess I’m proudest of as outspoken support, the need for health care reform and stabilizing the Foundation. I was not the only one, there was a number of us who happen to run one after the other who found that as a very high goal and several of us worked diligently on that.  \n\nAnd just for your information, with the $15 million Lilly grant now, that puts to the Foundation almost $300,000 a year. So it has grown. Because we were successful, now we can get grants.   \n\nAnd that’s the thing, there were a number of us along there including Bill Coleman and Jerry Keller. Several of the people who I served with on the Board had that as a very, very high priority and I believe we were basically successful in stabilizing the Foundation so that it does have the capability of doing the things that need to be done.\n\nWhen you were on the Foundation you were able, in the two years you served as President, to go on two humanitarian missions. Do you want to discuss those a little bit? \n\nI actually have been on three of them. The year I came off the Board, there was a special flight to Pakistan, a visitation. And Ruth Ann and I were able to go on that one. And the year I came off the Board of Directors at AAFP and we were able to be a member of that trip. And while I was on the Foundation as the President, I was able to go on two others. Another one to Kyrgyzstan. And I found those to be tremendous, I guess is the best way I can describe it. The capability of seeing what other people with a lot less capabilities are doing and what kinds of things are needed and to actually participate in helping in small way those people with their health care problems. So I was able to go on three separate trips.  \n\nAnd there are other organizations that you belong to which involve past Presidents or Board of Directors of the Academy. Each of these organizations, and I believe you are on more than one, meet at least once a year. Can you tell us a little bit about that?\n\nWhen I got off the Board of Directors one thing that has occurred is what we call reunion groups. And anyone who has been an officer in AAFP is eligible to be a member of the reunion groups. We get together and visit with each other and renew old friendships and relationships and continue with some of the best people that I’ve ever been able to associate with. That’s one of the highlights of my career, the ability to continue to deal with those people and to maintain relationships with them. It’s really a highlight. And we try not to miss one. Unfortunately, we are missing the one this fall.  \n\nIs that the one in Louisiana? \n\nYes. We had a commitment already when we got the dates.  \n\nHow many groups are you in? \n\nTwo. One of the things that happens with these reunion groups is they can only be a certain size because after a certain point the group just gets too unwieldy and too large. And so Ruth Ann and I were on the last year of what’s called the HUNS [Has been, Used to be and NeverwereS]. And we would attend that meeting every year. We looked around when we came off the Board and nobody was doing anything to establish the next reunion group, so Ruth Ann and I said we would do that, and that is the Happy Trails group. So we get to go to two a year.\n\nThey really do bring back fond memories and the groups spend a lot of time reminiscing about the good times and what’s happened to everybody. And it keeps the history going. You are also part of other professional organizations. Do you want to highlight some of those? \n\nI am a member of the AMA and the Oklahoma State Medical Association. But basically for the reasons that I expressed early on for my not being very interested in them, I’m not very interested or active in those groups. I belong but I’m not a very active member just because they have been, for many years, a group of old people who are not doing much to change the world. I think we as the Academy were among the forerunners of pushing within the AMA once again for health care reform. And that has become a big point with the AMA but we were among the earliest members, the Academy was, to push for health care reform. And so I think, to me, is one of the biggest things. And the state organizations I continue to be a member of. That’s about all the things that I do with organized medicine.  \n\nIn the past you served on a couple of Governor’s Conferences. \n\nYes, I did here in the state of Oklahoma. One of the committees was primarily dealing with children and children’s problems and emergency services for children who needed transport, etc. Oklahoma had developed a good transport system and the committee I was on with the Oklahoma State Medical Association was not instrumental but very helpful in organizing those.\n\nWas that the Oklahoma’s Healthy Future? \n\nYes, I believe so.  \n\nAnd then you were also on the Rural Health Planning Committee? \n\nYes, I was on that committee for a number of years.  \n\nWhat about civic organizations and community service? \n\nI have been a member of the Rotary Club and have done lots of different things in the various communities that I’ve been in. But none of them were really long term basically because I didn’t stay anywhere long enough.  \n\nHow have you seen family medicine change over the years? \n\nI think the way I’ve seen family medicine change over the years is it has become a legitimate specialty. It has demonstrated its need and it has had a lot of difficulties. And I’ve seen primarily with the pay structure, family practice for a long period of time and for many periods of time has been undervalued. And I think the role that we are playing now with the family physician – everyone needs a family physician. And with the new movement of trying to increase the family physicians and support family practice, I think that’s one of the big things that I have really enjoyed.\n\nDo you have opinions on where it may be going in the future? \n\nI have fears where it may not be going. Several years ago Bob Graham said here’s what’s going to happen – and at that point there were 40 million people who had no health insurance and no access to care – he said there is going to get to be enough people who don’t have access to care and there will be not a breakdown but essentially a breakdown of the system and then we will get some form of universal health care which will be drawn up over a hasty period and installed as a stop gap, and that could be pretty devastating.  \n\nI’m going to digress a little because you have had some very interesting hobbies also that are not necessarily science-related. Would you tell us a little bit about those? \n\nWe have a cabin in Colorado and I’m an avid hiker and fly fisherman. For many years I’ve tied my own flies, but I haven’t done that recently. But I’ve got all the stuff here and I’m going to get back to doing that again. I love to read. And anywhere that I haven’t seen or anyplace I haven’t been is someplace I want to go.  \n\nAnd Ruth Ann does too?   \n\nYes. We’re busier now in semi-retirement than we have been for a number of years. It’s really hard work.\n\nDo you think there’s a point in time where you will fully retire? \n\nYes, I probably will. Right now I’m working with Habitat for Humanity. I have a woodworking shop in my barn and have done some bookcases and several things around the house, so I have several things that keep me busy. But I probably will completely retire. Since I’ve been locum tenens I have been a lot of different places. Have been to Indian health reservations and spent six months in Australia. Every one of which were enjoyable and I just had a tremendous time even since I’ve been in semi-retirement. I’ve stopped doing OB, I’ve stopped doing many procedures. And right now I don’t do any hospital work. I just do outpatient clinic when I go to places. And I’ve been to several places in southwestern United States: Colorado, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma as well as Australia. So I am staying busy.\n\nYou must have learned woodworking growing up in your family then? \n\nYes. I was never a good woodworker. I could drive nails pretty good. But I always thought I wanted to do some woodworking, so when I semi-retired, when we moved here from Lawton I’ve been able to collect several saws and tools. And I’m learning to be a better woodworker but am not by any means outstanding, but I’m working in that direction.\n\nAny last thoughts that you would like to add to this or stories that you would like to share? \n\nI guess the thing that I’ve come back to on several occasions – I think the Academy and the Foundation are doing outstanding work within the health care system to make things better for people. I think as was stated a couple of years ago, our health care system is broken and it desperately needs to be repaired, replaced or some other form so that people can have health care services if they need them. And to me that is the overriding thing that I have with organized medicine. I was able to participate in its beginnings and was glad to see it continue even after I’m no longer a member of the administration or the leadership of the Academy and the Foundation. But I’m very proud to see them continue because that’s a goal that I think is just absolutely, must be done.\n\nIt has certainly been a pleasure for me to be able to conduct this interview with you. And if you determine after you get off the phone that there are additional areas you would like to cover, or a particular story, we are fully capable of doing that and adding to the tape. I have actually recorded on two separate tapes so Don will be forwarding you a tape in the near future.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/152988/file/281574#t=0.0,2582.89185"}]}]},{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/152988/file/281573","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 2 of 2 - Evans_Kenneth_08_b.wav"]},"duration":1327.57096,"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/152988/file/281573/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/152988/file/281573/content/2/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/281/573/original/Evans_Kenneth_08_b.wav?1752068828","type":"Audio","format":"audio/wav","duration":1327.57096,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://centerforthehistoryoffamilymedicine.aviaryplatform.com/collections/2195/collection_resources/152988/file/281573","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[]}]}