Oldest working Physican

I was driving one day, and the radio announcer told the story about, Dr. Howard Tucker "the world's oldest practicing doctor". At 100, he has been working in medicine for 75 years. Dr. Tucker, a physician and neurologist, just recently stopped seeing patients but still teaches medical residents twice a week in Cleveland, Ohio. Those students are truly blessed, just to hear his stories of his lived experience as a doctor will impact their careers in so many ways.    

Tucker was born in 1922. At that time the survival rate for men was 58 years and women 61. He has lived through the great depression, WWII and other historical crises including the pandemic. 

What really caught my attention was the fact that the doctor is not a fan of retirement. He feels retirement is the enemy of longevity. He identifies his work as delightful and fun, every day he learns something new. 

 Here is his advice for a long life:  

#1. Lead a healthy lifestyle: 

Clearly, he comes from a good gene pool. His mother lived to be 84 and his father lived even longer to the age of 96. Dr. Tucker feels that good genes have to be supported with moderation of nutrition and alcohol. He never smoked and drank only socially. He enjoys any kind of food in moderation. Exercise has been a big part of his lifestyle, he swims, jogs and skies regularly. His family put a stop to his skiing after he broke his neck in his late 80s, so he took up snowshoeing. He now has a home gym which he uses on a regular basis. 

He has been able to live his life without any major diseases. He got Covid at his 100th birthday party but managed to recover quickly and is just fine. 

#2. Don't retire:

Clearly retirement was not anything that this man would ever embrace. He identified that some people need to retire because of their jobs being too physically or emotionally draining. He feels that if you retire, don't retire. Every day, keep on doing something such as a hobby just to keep your brain stimulated. 

#3. Keep learning:

Dr. Tucker got his medical degree in 1947 and went on to specialize in neurology. When computers were introduced, he embraced them, as he knew they were here to say. As a neurologist, he keeps up with his field by studying and reading, which he thoroughly enjoys and continues to get excited by.

This man clearly has a huge desire to learn. In his 60s, he became a lawyer.  He went to law school at night while seeing patients during the day just because he was interested in the law.

#4. Cultivate happiness:

The doc's words of wisdom are that you have to be happy in your job and your domestic life. He and his wife, Sara, have been married for 65 years. She is 89 and still is a practicing psychiatrist. They have four children and ten grandchildren. 

This centurion ignited memories in me of the dear ole English Doctor I worked with for 28 years. Dr. P as we called him, died in his clinic, in his 80s. If he had lived, he would have been 100, and I am pretty sure he would still be working. He loved technology and was the first person I knew that had a computer. He read voraciously and loved to share his wisdom. Often it was far past my knowledge base, but I enjoyed him sharing with me. Dr. P loved to do woodworking and had a lathe, that was another topic of conversation, also lost on me. He, as well, was a skier, and once broke his arm skiing. He wore a cast for the minimal amount of time and never missed a day of work. He was one of those people that left a huge impact on me not only as a professional but also as a person. I credit him with everything I knew about medicine. His tricks of the trade and how he made sense of things were something I have never seen since. I wish I had taken the opportunity to tell him the impact he had on me. I am hoping he knows. 

There are people that just never retire, in fact they don't even consider it. Farmers I think would head the list. They only know how to get up every day and farm. Most of them love to farm and have no clue what they would do otherwise. At some point they have fewer responsibilities, but always there to help. When someone retires after working at the same career for decades, so does the knowledge. So much of the wisdom is lost and that is the saddest thing ever.  

I feel that my takeaway from this post is to retire, but not retire. Keep on learning. I have learned so much just by blogging. I enjoy making sense out of a comment or a saying. I am going to use the age excuse here, in that retention of information isn't as good as it used to be for me. 

Dr. Tucker and my old English Doctor are such inspirational men. For them working and doing what they love was living. For me, it is the "not working" that I love. Living for me isn't as easy to answer. After reading about the Doctor, I think the best way to live is to keep doing things that bring joy into my life. I need to remember to continue to challenge myself to find things that will stimulate my brain to stay active.   

I can't think of ending this post with anything more suiting than with Dr. Tucker's words: "I never think of death. You die once, but you live daily.... focus on the living".