A16 • HERMISTONHERALD.COM
GIFFORD
continued from Page A1
Linda Medical School.
After completing their
internships, Gifford and
his medical school buddy,
Dr. Richard A. Carpenter,
started practicing in Pend-
leton. The two hospitals in
town at the time didn’t have
any emergency room doc-
tors so town physicians cov-
ered. Gifford and Carpenter
did more than their share.
“We were two young
bucks covering most of it,”
Gifford said with a grin.
After nine months, the
pair of doctors started a
practice in Heppner. The
young physicians had their
hands full.
“In Heppner, there were
no specialists. It was good to
have nine months in Pend-
leton, before we dived into
the abyss,” Gifford said.
“Our saving grace was the
experience of the nurses
there. We just acted like we
knew what we were doing
to hide our intimidation and
insecurities.”
Such humility is pure
Gifford.
“I’m a people person
with a type A personal-
ity, but I’m not the smart-
est physician on the block,”
he said. “I feel I have savvy,
though. Savvy has gotten me
STAFF PHOTO BY E.J. HARRIS
Dr. Joseph Gifford dictates patient notes into a hand-held recorder on Thursday at his
practice in Hermiston.
through.”
The physician, gener-
ally upbeat and ebullient,
doesn’t gloss over hard sub-
jects during appointments.
“He’s not afraid to be real
with his patients,” said nurse
Nikkie Griffin. “He’s hon-
est with them. He doesn’t
sugarcoat.”
Gifford has noticed plenty
of changes during his career,
both positive and negative.
Doctors specialize more and
insurance companies play
a larger role in determining
care. It’s more difficult and
against some of the tough-
est competition the youth
wrestlers will face is just as
important.
“It’s a very tough tour-
nament,” Larson said, “and
I think last year we had one
guy place. So, if you look at
it like that, really we go there
and it’s — everybody wants
to place, don’t get me wrong,
but we look at it as one, let’s
go get more matches and
two, if we’re not where we
need to be technically, ath-
letically, whatever, let’s go
find out what it looks like,
let’s see what our goal is.”
Last year there were over
4,000 wrestlers participating
in the tournament from the
6-and-under age group all
the way up to age 18.
“At this age, winning
doesn’t matter,” Larson
added. “We want them to be
happy. We want them to like
wrestling. We want them to
go get matches, we just want
their skill level of wrestling
to get better.”
After worlds, Hermis-
ton will be competing in the
Tri-Cities before making
another trip to Nevada for
the Western Junior Region-
als in Las Vegas.
RENO
continued from Page A1
and forty five minutes of
a tough practice last week
with 11 youth wrestlers in
attendance.
The elementary and mid-
dle school aged kids, along
with their parents, practice in
the high school’s mat room
for nearly two hours most
evenings. Practices include
a number of different drills
paired with endurance train-
ing to keep the kids not only
physically tough but men-
tally prepared for the com-
petition they will face.
En route one of the two
biggest tournaments of the
year, the team has amassed
a collection of medals and
trophies.
In one of its more recent
outings in Pomeroy, Herm-
iston had seven wrestlers
stand atop the podium in
first place and one with a
second place finish.
This upcoming week-
end, Hermiston will be fac-
ing wrestlers from coast
to coast and while Larson
admits placing is always the
goal, seeing improvements
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 4, 2018
FROM PAGE A1
expensive to have an inde-
pendent practice.
“The independence of
physicians is gone to a great
extent,” he said.
On the other hand there
are “fantastic strides in med-
icine” such as pharmaceu-
ticals, enhanced surgical
procedures and increased
human longevity.
“A lot of progress in med-
icine has happened in 44
years,” he said.
Gifford moved to Herm-
iston 27 years ago as a fam-
ily physician and obstetri-
cian. Sixteen years ago, he
added the urgent care clinic.
The hospital bought and
assumed ownership of Gif-
ford Medical last July. Gif-
ford, who continued work-
ing there part-time, is easing
himself toward the door.
Patients and colleagues are
dreading the 19th when he
officially retires.
“He is one of those peo-
ple who truly cares about his
patients,” said Natasha Ell-
wanger, the practice man-
ager. “He’s gone to nurs-
ing homes. He’s gone to
people’s houses. You just
don’t find that any more in a
physician.”
“He has a big heart,”
Griffin said. “Really huge.”
Ellwanger, who started
in 2002 doing filing, said
patients are sad at the
thought of Gifford’s depar-
ture. Many have called the
office just to say good-bye.
She said Gifford saw 1,200
patients in his practice last
year and that doesn’t count
people he treated in urgent
care. People often stop Gif-
ford in town just to say hello.
In retirement, Gifford
looks forward to traveling
more with his wife, Lisa.
The boat he keeps moored
in the San Juan Islands will
get more use. His three chil-
dren and four grandsons will
see him more often. He is
a pilot, so he’ll spend extra
time in the air, too.
Good Shepherd is recruit-
ing a doctor to take Gifford’s
place.
As Gifford looked back
over the years, he said he
is blessed to have found a
profession that he loved so
much. He recalled his father,
a musician, telling him to
look for a job that he looked
forward to every day.
“You’ll never have to
work a day in your life,” said
Gifford, reciting his father’s
words. “You’ll get to work.”
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