Dr. Francis Cook is leaving Mad River Family Practice in Waitsfield at the end of this week, closing out 35 years as a family practitioner in The Valley.
He has served as the primary care doctor for thousands of Valley residents and visitors, leading the local health center through a major renovation, a confusing array of ownership changes and enormous changes in how health care is administered, how health care records are kept and how people interact with their health care providers.
Visiting Fran at his office this week for a minor visit, this writer was reminded of how many dozens or hundreds of times all of us have sat across from him with ailments ranging from large to small. Those many visits, over the years, form an obvious medical history but also form friendships and bonds of trust as well as the shared history and understanding of our community.
And when you share a history or your kids were on the same sports teams or the doctor sewed up your kid’s (or your own) gashes and bashes repeatedly, the connection deepens.
It’s no secret that Vermont and the nation are critically in need of the very type of doctor who is retiring from our community this week. The doctor willing to be both the generalist and the specialist, the pediatrician and the gerontologist and everything in between is increasingly rare as medical students tend toward surgery and specialties.
While many people find a new doctor du jour at their practice when they need medical attention, in our community we’ve been able to see our doctor year in and year out. We’ve been lucky to have such a dedicated doctor tending to us.
We wish Dr. Fran Cook well in his retirement and hope he enjoys his newfound time with his family and friends and running shoes.
He will be feted at a retirement party tonight, September 15, at the new Waitsfield town office on Main Street from 5 to 7 p.m.
Stop by and tell him thanks.
