Newspapers / InterCom (Durham, N.C.) / July 25, 1975, edition 1 / Page 3
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Preston Smith Leaves After 45 Years 3 Lab Work Gives Way to Lawn Mower Duke Hospital was barely a month old when Preston Smith came here [or an interview in 1930. They offered him a job and he stayed. Smith will retire at the end of this month, after 45 years at Duke—one of only a handful of people still around who can remember how it was at the beginning. In the remaining days of his work life here, Smith, who heads the Medical PDC Laboratory, agreed to sit down for a recorded conversation with Intercom. Here’s what, he had to say: Intercom: When did you come to Duke, and how did you get your first job? Smith: I came for an interview on Saturday, Aug. 23, 1930, with a Mr. Winston who was the first superintendent of the hospital. Later in the course of the morning, he took me up to the office of Dr. Harold L. Amos, who was the first-chairman of medicine here. I had simply heard that there was a job opening, but I didn’t know what it was. Remember, this was 1930 when people were doing anything to make a few dollars. As a youngster, I had always thought I was interested in science, and ! felt this might be an opportunity to leam something about one phase of it. Other than that, it was just a shot in the dark. Intercom: What did you do? Smith: There were a number of student labortories in the hospital, one for each of the different services. It was my duty to keep those labs supplied with solutions and materials for the medical students to work with. It was a daily routine, gathering up empty bottles and taking them back to headquarters and refilling them. Intercom: What was your title? Smith: In those days, titles didn’t mean too much. I was just the boy who filled up the empty bottles. Intercom: How would “Chief cook and bottle washer” cover it? Smith: (chuckling) Pretty well. Intercom: Whom did you work for? Smith: Dr. Oscar Carl Edward Hansen-Pruss, a hematologist, allergist and syphilologist. As time went on, and I acquired sufficient knowledge, he asked me to help with the teaching of second-year medical students. I assisted in teaching microscopy up until about eight or 10years ago when the curriculum changed and things down here in the laboratory became too busy to allow much teaching. Intercom: Where are you from originally? Smith: / was bom in the strawberry and truck farming country around Whiteville, N.C. My father was a Baptist minister, something which means different things to different people. Baptist ministers move around a lot. Sometimes they stay in a place as long as they can, and sometimes they get thrown out and have to look for another pasture. Intercom: Did you move around much? Smith: More than I liked. Among the places I lived were Georgia, Brevard in the North Carolina mountains and Windsor on the Cashie River between Rocky Mount and Elizabeth City. I don’t guess you could say I’m from any particular place except Durham, where I’ve lived for the past 45 years. Ministers ’ children don't as a rule grow up in any particular place. Sometimes I think they have trouble growing up at all. Intercom: Are there any advantages to having a minister for a father? Smith: There may be some advantages, depending on whether the minister is in the big time or in the middle or on the bottom of the stack. Being a minister’s son puts one on the spot. You can’t be an in-between like most people. I was more toward the hellish side than the angelic side. 'The biggest disadvantage is that you don’t have an opportunity to put roots down. Intercom: Why did you stay at Duke for 45 years? Smith: I .stayed because I liked the people with whom I worked and I liked what I was doing. It wasn’t always the pay—not at Duke—but I did like the people very much. Another reason was that after my childhood, I just didn’t like to move. After I retire, my wife and I are going to move to Morehead City. That ’II be the last time. The next time someone is going to have to move me. Intercom: Weren’t you ever tempted to move? Smith: There’s an old saying that the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Well, I found out (dong time ago that that just isn’t true. It hasn’t been all peaches and cream, but I did have the opportunity to grow. I consider it a privilege to have had the opportunity to get into a thing like this from a very early age from my point of view and almost from the birth of the institution. Intercom: What’s it like to work in the lab here? Smith: We have about 21 people and the group has been amcaingly congenial. I have to give them all the credit for making things go. I can have ideas for getting things done, but I certainly couldn’t translate it into action if these people hadn’t been so able and cooperative. Intercom: What exactly does the Private Medical Laboratory do? Smith: We do virtually all the routine hematology ivork on private and staff inpatients who haven’t come for a special blood problem. Those people go up to the adult hematology lab headed by Dr. Rundles. We also do routine urinalyses, special studies on urine, examination of stool for parasites or blood or whatever, and we do examination of chest, abdominal, spinal and joint fluids. As far as outpatients are concerned, we do things like glucose tolerance tests and other kinds of tests where it’s necessary for the patients to be on hand to get them done. That kind of thing. Intercom: How long have you been director of the lab? Smith: Since 1947. Intercom: What would you say your contribution has been? Smith: According to my parenLs, when I was little I never had any trouble getting youmters who came to visit to do my work for me. It was a Tom Sawyer kind of thing. You give me an apple and I ’II let you paint my fence. I’ve had some capacity along this line, and I just hope I haven’t tried to exploit it too much. Don’t say anything about that Tom Sawyer bit, though. Give me a chance to get out oftoum first. Intercom: That sounds like a handy management skill, to get other people to work without making them feel like they’re being bossed around. Smith: Well, getting older helps to accompli.sh that too. Intercom: That’s an advantage? Smith: Sure. Here the.se kids come in and they look at this old guy luith gray and thinning hair and they get the idea he must know something. — Intercom: Have you got any hobbies or special pastimes? Smith: I used to collect coins, stamps and do plwtography to a certain degree. Nothing fancy, hut / used to develop my own pictures. My people gave a dinner for me the other night, and presented me with a five dollar gold piece minted in the year of my birth, 1910, and sterling silver North Carolina bicentennial medcd to add to my collection. They were really too generous. Also, I like anything that relates to the water such as fishing and boating. I like to surf fish for blue fish, flounder, pompano and so forth, and go out in a boat for Spanish and king mackeral. Or just walk along the beach and look at the water. Intercom: Have you any special stories about what it used to be like around here? Smith: No, not really. I find it hard to reach back and pull out exciting things that happened. Maybe I haven’t tried to make it exciting enough. I was mainly concerned with getting things organized so they really run themselves. I tried to deed fairly with people and resolve difficulties. When I came the place was very small. The department heads had very few staff members. The hospital building ended where the bank is now. In fact, the first office I walked into at Duke was located where the bank is now. That was the superintendent’s office. Intercom: Why do you think Duke grew so fast? Smith: Patients just began flocking to the medical center because there was nothing like it around here at that time. This was a quality of medicine people weren ’t used to. Duke was the first four-year medical school in this neck of the woods, and the caliber of men who were brought in to start it was responsible for the patients. Intercom: How do you feel about retiring? Smith: I’m looking forward to getting out. Certainly one gets tired when one gets older and doesn’t have the stamina available to young people. I’ll miss the daily involvement and my little group here. Intercom: Do you have any fears about retirement? Smith: Well, here’s a job I’ve gone to everyday for 45 years, and then all of a sudden there’s no job to go to everyday. I have to be concerned with how I’m going to react, and 1 hope I have the capacity to react to it in the proper kind of way. I’ve thought about it, but I think you have to get there first. I want to feel my way. Intercom: Do you have any special plans? Smith: Other than moving to Morehead City and going fishing whenever I want to, no. I’ve got a lot of learning to do and I don't want to make any commitments. I won’t hesitate to get involved in some kind of work like volunteering at the hospital down there, but not at the outset. , Intercom: Can you think of anything in particular you’re looking forward to? Smith: (with a broad smile) Yes, not cutting the grass. My wife and I have been going to Morehead every other week for seven years. All that time I knew I had to cut the grass when I got down there on Friday evening, just in case it rained on Saturday or Sunday. Intercom: You always cut it when you got down there on Fridays? Smith: Always. Now I’ve got a greater degree of freedom to make decisions about things that don't make a hoot anyway. If it doesn ’t get cut on Friday, that’s just too bad. I’ll cut it on Tuesday. iSPli LOOKING BACK Ot^ 45 VMRS—Thousands of people working at Duke today weren't even born when Preston Smith, supervisor of the Medical PDC Laboratory, started work here in 1930. Beginning next month, he can cut the grass at his beach house whenever he wan^ts to, not just on weekends. (Photo by Jim Wallace)
InterCom (Durham, N.C.)
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July 25, 1975, edition 1
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