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
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(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.
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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.