PAGE A10, KEIZERTIMES, APRIL 7, 2017
100,
continued from Page A1
with room and board and he
called me one afternoon to say
that a new hospital had been
built in town. They needed
someone to be in the building
24 hours a day because of the
boilers or they couldn’t stay
open,” Casterline said.
Casterline
approached
the administrators and soon
enough he had an army cot
in the basement with a wash
basin fi lled from pitchers of
water. Eventually, he became
the day orderly.
It was in that capacity that
Casterline followed a nurse
to the X-ray room to take a
picture of a patient in a cast.
Submitted
On her way back, Casterline Dr. Vernon Casterline (front row, second from right) with his intern cohort at Portland’s St. Vin-
stopped the nurse and asked cent Hospital in the late 1940s.
if he could learn how to do
that. He was told to go to the to anything in this world
College was not something a man in Salem, Ore., and
hospital administrator and worthwhile, and you have to he’d ever considered, but she invited him to come
fi nd out if that was possible.
go to school and get some another door opened about to live with her while he
“I went to her offi ce and she more training in anatomy and six months later. One of attended school at Willamette
told me there was no shortcut chemistry,” Casterline said.
Casterline’s aunts married University. He took her up on
the offer, arriving in Salem
in January 1937, but had
to borrow $5 to cover the
$
registration fees.
“There were still tracks
from streetcars in the roads, but
NOW THROUGH APRIL 30
Additional charge for
I don’t remember seeing the
over 15 feet.
Customer supplies electrical.
streetcars still in operation,”
Casterline said.
To make money for room
and board, he decided to
inquire about opportunities
at the 12-bed Deaconess
Hospital down the road
from Willamette’s campus.
Deaconess is now known as
Salem Health.
He offered to become the
fi rst night orderly at Deaconess,
but the administrator at the
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persisted. He
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Saturday, May 20
Lemonade Day is the national event that teaches kids how a business
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relented and gave him a job.
“I think he just wanted to
put a stop to it, but it created
a job for someone else after
me,” Casterline said.
He was just fi nishing his
course of study at Willamette
in 1941 when the United
States entered World War II.
He enlisted and spent time
in the medical corps. After
fi nishing his stint with the
Army, he qualifi ed for the GI
Bill and was able to complete
his medical degree at the
University of Oregon Medical
School in Portland, now
known as Oregon Health and
Sciences University.
It was while interning
at St. Vincent Hospital that
Casterline met his future wife,
Jean Ryser, who was a surgical
nurse.
In addition to her “bright
raisin eyes,” Jean’s adeptness in
the surgery room caught his
notice. Casterline scrubbed
in to observe an open-chest
surgery one day while she was
the nurse in the room and he
enjoys telling the story to this
day.
“The doctor had reached
out his hand for a tool and
Jean put it there, but he told
her it was the wrong one.
Jeannie stood fi rm though
and held it there. The doctor
looked again and realized it
was the right one,” Casterline
said.
The couple eventually
married and had fi ve kids
together. Jean served as the
offi ce nurse when Casterline
opened his fi rst offi ce in
Keizer on Sept. 8, 1950. He
shared an offi ce with dentist
Jerry Bowerly and a building
with pharmacist Earl Mootry.
An offi ce visit was $4 or $5
dollars at the time, and there
was something of an uproar
when other local doctors
started charging $7.50 for a
new patient. House calls were
between $5 and $7.
“You lived a lot on farm
products,” Casterline said.
After
he
caught
a
20.5-pound trout on his
honeymoon with Jean, one
of his patients stuffed and
mounted it in return for
delivering a baby.
“The hardest thing to
do was send a bill. That was
something they never taught
us in school,” Casterline said.
Still, his practice grew
rapidly. He earned enough
in his fi rst year to pay off all
the debt on the equipment
he purchased for his offi ce.
In 1956, when Mootry had
a new pharmacy constructed
nearby, Casterline moved to
a new offi ce in the rear of
the building. Modern day
Keizerites know the site
as Boucher’s Jewelers and
Willamette Valley Animal
Hospital.
He said it was “great” being
tapped as the team doctor for
the Celtics, especially because
he got to get into all of the
games for free. Football and
basketball were his favorite
sports, but coach Vic Backlund
turned him into a baseball fan.
He still recalls vividly – as in he
can name every team McNary
beat – the Celtics’ path to the
school’s fi rst football state title
in 1997. Two years ago, he was
invited to cut the ribbon at a
dedication of the turf football
fi eld at the school.
Casterline retired from
his private practice on Sept.
8, 1986, but he was far from
through. He spent the next 22
years as the medical director
of a plasma center in Salem.
Throughout
it
all,
Casterline’s youngest daughter,
Debbi, recalls the ways her
father chose to get involved in
the community.
“He would do screenings
for the Shriner’s or free
physicals for kids at churches.
I was always really proud of it,”
Debbi said.
His advice for those who
want to live to 100 – and even
those who don’t – is to hold
fast to the things that matter
to you personally.
“If you want something,
go for it. Don’t give up on
the fi rst try. If you want it and
you’re qualifi ed for it, work
for it,” he said. “Being around
hospitals was something that
got into my blood. I liked
those surroundings. When I
wanted that job as an orderly, I
just kept asking.”
Maker fair at OSU
Oregon State University will host The Co., a two day event
celebrating hands-on learning and maker culture, April 14 to 15
on the Corvallis campus.
“SEA Through the Eyes of an Artist” will take place from
9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. April 14 at Furman Hall. The fourth-annual
Corvallis Maker Fair will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. April
15 in the Memorial Union ballroom and the Student Experi-
ence Center Plaza. Both events are free and open to the public.
“Maker” culture is a popular movement honoring craftsman-
ship and technology and the sharing of knowledge, skills and
resources.
Activities include an arts and science geocaching quest
throughout the OSU campus; panels to inspire women and girls
to enter STEM fi elds, presented by the campus groups Women
in Science and Women in Engineering; and a show focused on
arts and science presented by the Corvallis Public Library, and
much more.
Registration information, a complete schedule, exhibitor list
and additional details about the events are available at www.
corvallismakerfair.org.