As a young man he once listed his prime interests as “pretty girls, snappy roadsters, and bourbon on the rocks.”Later he wrote to his family in St. Louis, “I am a doctor. This is the root of me-I am a doctor. Everything else, everyone, is second to that. First, I am a doctor….Everything else is second. Home life, social life, writing life, living life, loving life, family friends, romance, fame, fortune, all these are secondary because I am a doctor. He wore a St. Christopher medal around his neck, engraved with the words of Robert Frost:
“The woods are lovely, dark and deep.But I have promises to keep And miles to go before I sleep.”
He traveled those miles and wanted to go more, but an insidious disease cut short his meteoric career one day after his 34th birthday He was a singular man who believed in people.His name was Doctor Thomas A. Dooley.

AOWM January 17, 2005