Feature > Dr. James D. Morrissey
Dr. Morrissey prepares pig hearts for an annual presentation to local elementary students – a project he has led for decades to introduce young students to the marvels of medicine and the human body.
Jim writes a letter to the admissions officer. Within days, he is summoned to a meeting of the admissions committee. Every committee member is sitting in front of a copy of Jim’s letter. The admissions officer turns to Jim. “You say here that we’ve turned you down a second time, and that this is a mistake. Why do you think we’ve made a mistake?” So Jim told them. He knew he could handle the academic load, because there was no way medical school could be as hard as the College of Forestry. The committee, of course, was insulted. So Jim told them of his strong drive, and his unwavering desire to become a doctor. He talked with a conviction that can only come from sincerity, and with a passion that remains in him today. Up to that moment, Jim had lived a life propelled by his own power; with plenty of assists and cooperation by friends and strangers, of course, but always with the feel of the reins in his own two hands. This time was different. A group of people he didn’t know held the fate of his most fervent desire. He got in. If you could have seen Jim during those years, you wouldn’t need the benefit of his recent accomplishments to appreciate his stamina. Jim not only handled medical school, he also served in the Naval Reserve Ensign Program, played sports with characteristic gumption, and traveled to Malawi, in southeastern Africa. Jim graduates med school. It is 1964. He signs up for the Peace Corps. While he waits for assignment,
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SAN JOAQUIN PHYSICIAN
he works in a year’s internship in general surgery at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, Missouri. In July, 1965, Jim arrives in Tanzania, East Africa, to work as a Peace Corps volunteer. He returns to the States in 1967, and begins his second internship at Barnes that July as assistant resident in general surgery. In 1969, during a break from his residency, Jim joins an expedition to Dhaulagiri, a 26,794-foot mountain in Nepal, Asia. Jim is the team physician. It is an illfated expedition. Seven of the fourteen members are wiped out by an avalanche, including the team leader. After the mountain quiets, no one seems to know what to do. The remaining seven climbers mill around. “Okay, obviously somebody has to make some decisions around here. So I’m going to make a decision,” Jim says to the group. He takes charge, leading the remaining members on a search for bodies. Nothing can be found but backpacks and ropes. The climbers make their way down Dhaulagiri. Jim and his friend, Louis Reichardt, have already resolved to return to the mountain. The two make their pitch to the Nepalese government for a permit on a second climb, to be attempted four years hence. They get their permit before they leave Nepal. They would climb Dhaulagiri again. Jim’s assistant residency ended in June of 1971. He spent one more year at Barnes Hospital, as chief resident of cardiothoracic surgery. He left in June of 1972, and began laying plans to relocate to a city in California, despite having just completed
SUMMER 2011