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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (March 4, 1982)
Page 6 Portland Observer, March 4, 1982 OBSERVATIONS FROM THE SIDELINES H Y Kathryn H a ll Bogle Some time ago we sought out D r. Webster C . Brown in his retirement to tell us something o f his early life and medical career. O rd in a rily given to short terse statements, the subjects o f medicine and surgery, especially surgery, con tinue to be D r. Brown’s favorite top ics. The terseness falls away as he set tles in his big c o m fo rtab le leather chair and relives early experiences for the listener. “ I was born in M a rs h a ll, Texas about 160 miles east o f Dallas near the Louisiana border. Marshall was a small college town o f 28,000 when I was growing up. About 18,000 in that population were Black. T h at is the home o f W yler college. There were also three white colleges there at that time,” Dr. Brown recalled. He revealed that he had spent only five years in elem entary school, having been prom oted rapidly and skipping grades. H e was graduated from high school at age IS, the vale dictorian o f his class. M y father and m other met when they were both sophomores in college and married soon after that. M y fa ther w orked as a barber and my mother reared the family o f five chil dren. U nfortunately, my father died when I was in high school. “ I earned a four-year scholarship to college and since I lived across the street from W yler College, I went to school all year around. I graduated from W yler in three years at the age o f 18.’ “ This turned out to be 1942 and the country was at war and I had be come eligible for the d ra ft. I volun teered fo r commission in the A rm y and was commissioned as a 2nd Lt. in the A rm o u red Services Corps. The local dentist influenced me to apply for dental school, and ! did. " T h e A rm y too k over M c L a rry Dental school in Nashville, Tennes see. M cL a rry was organized in 1878 by tw o w hite brothers named M cL arry who thought there should be some school for Black students to study the health sciences. It is a pri vate school supported now by many foundations. It has turned out about 60 per cent o f the Black physicians and dentists in the United States dur ing the past 100 years. " I had a m ajo r in chemistry as I had intended to become a physics and chemistry in college, but the war changed that. “ I resigned my commission and be came a PFC in the specialized train ing program. This meant that again I went to school the year ’round. They paid fo r the schooling, the books, they fed and housed me, and I wore a uniform. I was graduated from dental school in 1945. " H o w e v e r, the w ar at that tim e ground to a screeching halt and the arm y decided they d id n ’ t need any more dentists, so I got my diplom a and my discharge on the day o f grad u atio n . A t the convenience o f the government. " A friend, a dentist, had decided to m ove fro m M a rla n d , Texas, to Waco and he had left his office intact in M arland. He offered me the use o f his o ffic e and equipm ent, so I just stepped into his office in July. And changed the nam e on the shingle. A n d practiced in M a rla n d fo r one year. " I was the o n ly B lack dentist in M a rla n d , a tow n o f 2 0 ,0 0 0 . There were two Black physicians there, but they were in their ’60s and ’70s, so there I was 22, and there wasn’t much social life for me. It was work from 8 am to 8 pm until I closed the office at night. " I did get on a train and go to visit my brother who had enrolled at medi cal school at M cLarry. 1 made several visits in the year there. " A f t e r p racticing d en tistry for about eight months, I decided I ’d go to medical school. So, in September, 1946, I enrolled at M cL arry Medical School. M y b ro th e r was tw o years ahead o f me, and since the medical students were still in the ASTP, I was, for the first year, back in the A STP. The U n iversity o f Texas would not en ro ll a Black student in medical EXODUS 1639 N E Alberta PORTLAND. OREGÙN 9721 1 2 9 4 -7 9 9 7 Quadripartite Mental - Fitness Since the beginning o f recorded history and probably before, there has existed the need to identify a direct linkage between human emotion as it relates to TRUTH; and human emotion as it relates to FANTASY and FABRIC ATION. My Quadripartite Concept lends this form ula as one direct linkage buween these two extremes. school, so the State o f Texas paid my expenses where I could go to school— M cLarry. “ I was graduated fro m M c L a rry with a medical degree in 1950. I did an internship at Coney Island Hospi tal in B ro o k ly n , New Y o rk . There DR. WEBSTER C. BROWN were 50 interns there and I ranked British medicine is practiced on a second among the interns for activity very high scientific scale. We had sev and application. There were students eral consultants to o ur h o sp ital. from H o w ard , Johns H opkins, and There was one neurosurgeon. Sir D A - Yale who had never delivered a baby. vid, Lord David Brain, that I got tc A t M cLarry, during our senior year, know very well. I went into his hospi we had to deliver six babies for the tal and observed his surgical proce poorer areas o f Nashville. We had to dures. do this all by ourselves w ith the aid " W e had a 250-bed general hospi only o f a student nurse. tal and we were responsible fo r the "Because o f that experience I was Arm y, Navy and A ir Force troops in sort o f the ’old man’ o f the O .B . ser England, Norway and Greenland. We vice. The rest had never delivered a were also responsible for embassy o f baby. So I th in k the tra in in g at ficials and their wives. M c L a rry was good. T h ere were 70 I personally did around 1200 major Black graduates in my class at operations. 1 had a staff o f six general M cLarry. surgeons with me. It was interesting "O n e o f the strangest occasions I because I was from Texas and all o f ever had while at Coney Island Hos them were from southern states also. pital was when I was called to a reli One was fro m T u la n e , L a .; there gious wedding o f a certain faith. The were two from the University o f A la ambulance attendants and I brought bam a, one fro m D u ke, one fro m the stretcher into the church and there Vanderbilt, and one from University was a man lying down just before the o f Florida Medical School. And I was alter. He was gasping for breath and the Chief. holding his chest. The religious leader " I was the chief, and I might say was conducting the ceremony and he that our association c o u ld n ’ t have never stopped conducting the cere been better. mony. The man had apparently suf " I had m arried June Borders in fered a severe heart attack, so with 1950 and I was tempted to stay in the the ceremony going on, we knelt and service, but my wife had her doubts put the oxygen mask on the man and about being a service wife all those I gave him an intravenous injection o f years so we decided to come back to m orphine and — the prayers droned the U.S. We did some traveling to 32 on. countries in the two years we were "N obody moved a muscle. So after there, a lot if it on the continent by 10-15 minutes, he was relieved o f his autom obile and those memories are pain, and was breathing a little better. enjoyable. We put him on the stretcher and car “ I came to Portland and talked to ried him out to the ambulance. The D r. W alter Reynolds, D r. DeNorval ceremony was never interrupted. Unthank, and Dr. John Marshall and " A f t e r my internship was over, I they thought that I could make a go applied to M cLarry to do residence in o f it in P o rtla n d . W e came here in general surgery, and in 1951 I went 1957. back to where I started to do five “ I ’m more satisfied that I came as years’ residency in surgery. time goes by. Portland has been voted “ I completed my residency in 1956 most livable o f the whole 50 states, and was commisisoned a captain in and taking into consideration weath the U .S . A ir Force, entered service, er, schools, lack ot slaughters and— and was sent overseas to England. I W e ll, I would recommend Portland served tw o years at the A ir Force absolutely. H osp ital about 15 miles from L o n " T h e Phil Reynolds clinic is a full don. service clinic and it’s fully qualified to serve as a health maintenance organ iza tio n which is the d irectio n that health care is going in the next few years. T h ere is still room for one more Black physician to work in this clinic to complement the physicians on this staff. We hope that the right person will show up in the not-too- distant future.” Rose Jewelry Centigrade temperature, now often called Celsius, is named after Anders Celsius of Sweden who devel oped the centigrade thermometer. • Which movie star holds the record for being nomin ated for the Academy Award the most times? A ns wer: Katherine Hepburn, with 11 nominations, Fine Jewelry Menufecturing Gold, Diamond, Rings, Watches, and Repairing 62SS.W. Broadway Portland, Oregon 97206 (503) 224 6640 • It's a little-know n fact that Davy C rockett was a member of Congress long before he became more fa mous fighting at the Alamo. We do not do business with South Africa. American State Bank Below _ __ Intereet Want to buy your own home? CALL NOWI Ask for Jerome Mouton 287 0396 a AM INDEPENDENT BANK Head Office 2737 N. E. Unlgn Portland, Oregon 97212 .GMtoON R I A i r / c A Want to buy your own home? 1) ATTITU D E Is singular and always set the direction o f the next three entities. 2) TREATM ENT Is created by attitude times two. 3) SITUATION Is created by treatment times two. 4) TRUTH Is created by situation times two, Plus, treatment times two, Plus, Attitude. Truth is neither good nor bad; right nor wrong. Truth is Truth and is always a part of, and must be related directly to these other three entities in or- DER TO BE Truth. ANYBODY OUT THERE W AN T TO C H ALLEN G E MY FORMULA? Knowledge and understanding o f these four entities and how they interrelate is in part what Quadripartite Mental - Fitness is all about.
