Island Hoppers Sanibel Residents Often Retire to Shell Point B
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Shell Point is home to more than 2,100 people, and it is not surprising to discover how many have moved to Shell Point from nearby Sanibel Island. Here are just a few of the friendly Sanibel folks who now call Shell Point home. Perfect Prescription For Dr. Dick Smith and his wife, Joan, Sanibel Island turned out to be the best antidote to a busy career in the medical field. Dick and Joan met at the University of Minnesota when both were pursuing degrees in the medical field, Dick as a physician and Joan as a medical technician. The couple started a family and had two children in quick succession. After Dick’s internship they moved Dick and Joan Smith to St. Cloud, Minnesota, for two years and then they moved to a small town just north of St. Cloud, named ily to Fort Lee, Virginia, where they spent Holdingford. two years as Dick ran the X-ray depart“This little town was about as close as ment in the station hospital. you could get to that mythical town of Lake Woebegone that radio host Garrison On the Move Again Keillor describes on his weekly radio proJoan was a very good sport and had begram, ‘A Prairie Home Companion,’” said come proficient at packing up the family of Dick. “There were only 500 people in the five because in two years they were on the whole town and everybody knew every- move again, this time to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, body else’s business.” where Dick joined a radiology group in 1955. In 1950 they moved to Madison, Wis- It was during their time in Cedar Rapids that consin, so that Dick could attend the Uni- Dick and Joan met a couple who had a place versity of Wisconsin to study radiology. on Sanibel Island. “They were always talking During his three-year residency, the cou- about Sanibel and encouraging us to come ple had one more child, but they weren’t visit them,” said Dick, “so we finally did.” settled yet, because following his resi- Dick and Joan loved the island with its dency, Dick was called into the military unique, laid-back atmosphere. after the Korean War. He moved his famAfter four years in Cedar Rapids, the
family moved to San Diego, where Dick opened his own radiology practice. They enjoyed all of the positive attributes of living in California, including the mild climate of San Diego, but they didn’t forget that first visit to Sanibel Island. Dick and Joan had started participating in “house swapping” for vacations, so a year after their first visit, they arranged to trade houses with a couple on Sanibel for an entire month in 1978. “We decided on that trip that it would be a good idea to purchase a piece of property on the island for possible use in the future,” said Dick. “Although this was the late 1970s, I knew someday I would be retiring and we were already starting to think about where we might want to live in our retirement.” Dick retired in 1981 and the couple finally made Sanibel their full-time home in 1992. “One of the things we really liked about Sanibel was the people who lived there were pretty close to our age,” said Dick. “It was mostly a retired group backthen and you could get acquainted very easily. Plus the stores were close by and everything was convenient. There were churches, city facilities, a fantastic library, and many other amenities that made the island truly special.”