This is my Father, Ralph Dean Dooley, M.D. 1899-1978, he was a physician in the days when he was more, a Doctor, a Minister, a Friend, an Adviser and concerned and active in his community. He listened to Walter Winchell, H. V. Kaltenborn, Peter Grant from WLW in Cincinnati, spending many hours in front of the old Philco Radio. He was raised on a farm in Indiana, served in WWI even though he was too young, tried to serve in WWII but was too old and did as much as he could for the war effort. He always fired a small canon that he made on his lathe, on the Fourth of July, and every time he saw an American Flag, he put his had over his heart. He was as honest and hard working as they come. In this foto is a replica of a blacksmith shop from his childhood that he made. He carved the animated figures and my Mom dressed them. He loved wood working and spent many happy hours in his workshop.
His early years he was a GP, in General Practice, he made house calls, and had regular office hours, afternoon and evening. He never went to bed until the last patient was seen and treated. I spent many hours in the old DeSoto or the Packard Clipper, riding with him when he made house calls or did his "rounds" at Miami Valley hospital. He was dedicated to his patients and many of them became family friends.
In the late 50's, at the end of his term as President of the Montgomery County Medical Society, I attended his farewell banquet, and remember well his admonishment of physicians, and cautioned them on "abusing" their own insurance programs, and predicting what he felt was the future of "Medicine." So far, all of his predictions have become reality. He made the comment, prior to his death, that he was proud that he had been a physician, but not proud of what the profession had degenerated to. He felt that "some" physicians no longer practice medicine but practice deceit.
I wonder how he would feel today.
