An obit for my father, who died this morning at the age of 94.
A writer before he became a doctor, the name Philip Smith turned up in student magazines and newspapers at N.Y.U., and in what he called “little magazines,” the various literary journals of the day. A few of his poems were anthologized in “The Yearbook of Modern Poetry 1939.”
Following medical school at Middlesex, he interned at Jamaica Hospital in 1942, and then became a medic in the Army. Captain Smith was overseas in 1944, in both Great Britain and France. After the war, he married (June of 1946) and opened his office in the Bronx. A few years ago, his health failing, he celebrated his 64th wedding anniversary. He received a cake, and much love from all of us, me, my mother, my sister. He had a good time, but he at one point he said to my mother, "I'm sorry...I didn't get you anything." Being housebound, we all understood. What he gave us was just being there, in good spirits, and always with an unpredictable, funny observation.
My father built the practice up, moving from Tremont Avenue to the Grand Concourse, and once the business was settled, and I and my sister were in junior high and high school, he returned to his love of writing, and as a hobby, turned out speculative fiction.
“A Miracle Too Many” was published in “Fantasy and Science Fiction” magazine, and then anthologized in Japan and via “10th Annual Edition The Year’s Best S-F,” edited by Judith Merrill. Among the other authors in that anthology, which was issued in both hardcover and paperback, were Isaac Bashevis Singer, Arthur C. Clark, Thomas M. Disch, John D. MacDonald and Fritz Leiber.
In 1979, he published his memoir, “Doctor!”
The book was originally titled “NYMD,” but as “Nurse” had come out fairly recently, the book company figured “Doctor” would have a place alongside it.
It takes time, concentration and often great determination to write a book, and my father did this while performing a demanding job that required office hours often six days a week, duty in hospitals, and, yes, house calls. My mother, Bernice Smith, said that one of his most remarkable traits was his determination, his "strength of character."
Since he was so amiable, so pleasant, this will power was never a negative. It manifested itself in the discipline to become a doctor, to write a book, and to quit smoking. My father decided one day that he wouldn't smoke anymore, so he literally threw out his collection of expensive pipes (much to my mother's astonishment) and that was it. When he decided to learn judo, he went at it with single-minded purpose, and there he'd be, practicing falls on the living room carpet. When he was in his late 80's and advised not to drive anymore, he sold his car within 24 hours. And my mother knew this trait in Dad from the start...they'd gone out on a blind date and were married within a few months.
In the early 1980's, with the Bronx deteriorating and many doctors finding it simply too dangerous to maintain an office along the once splendid Grand Concourse, Dr. Smith gave up his practice after some 30 years. I remember one summer I filled in for his vacationing receptionist, and he'd told me, "If a drug addict comes in, don't argue with him. This is where I keep the morphine. Give it to him." It had become that perilous in the neighborhood.
Though he closed his office, he wasn’t closing the door on his lifelong profession. Instead, he began working for the Veterans Hospital in Montrose, his patient roster heavy with not just physical but emotional casualties from various wars. He had to use all his skills, and learn new ones, to handle the challenge of wards filled with men with mental problems, some of them potentially violent.
The result of the experience was a revised, expanded and re-titled version of “Doctor.” Now, in addition to being an “inside look” into what your family doctor is all about, the book added amazing chapters to become...”All Patients Sick and Crazy.”
As with “Doctor” tying in to “Nurse,” this title was chosen to perhaps position the book next to “All Creatures Great and Small.” The book had a great cover photo and the back cover copy mentioned that the new book “takes us to three distinct settings”:
As combat physician during World War II, he had some field hospital experiences that make MASH look mild...
After the war, Dr. Smith settles into the unsettling position of general practictioner in a riotously mixed neighborhood in the Bronx...With some of the funniest and most unusual patients any doctor has ever seen, the G.P. learns that common sense and empathy are often the best medicine.
The final phase of Dr. Smith’s career brings him to a Veterans Hospital that serves the mentally ill. The wild scenes...make “One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest” look tame. One lovesick patient gives the nurse the eye -- taking his glass eye right out of the socket!”
The book I think was a good reflection of the man, as well as the doctor and the writer...the anecdotes showed him to be a nice cynic, a kind realist, someone who knew human nature but felt a sense of duty and humanity anyway.
By the late 80’s and early 90’s, styles had changed in what was left of the science fiction and fantasy magazines, as well as the world of mystery books. He wrote a pair of novels after the publication of “All Patients Sick and Crazy,” but could not find a market for them without extensive re-writes...something that was too much like work. He did appreciate that he had two published writers in the family now.
My first novel appeared in 1993, years after the publication of my first best-selling non-fiction book, ‘Cosby.’ Since my father loved jokes so much, I dedicated “The Comedy Quote Dictionary” to him. It was published in 1992 by Doubleday. My sister April, fresh from her television success with made-for-TV movies (including “Kovacs,” starring Jeff Goldblum) and her work as writer, story editor and producer on “Lou Grant” and “Cagney and Lacy,” began turning out thrillers in 1994 (“North of Montana”). “For my father,” was the dedication on “Good Morning Killer,” which was published in 2003.
With or without a dedication on a page, much of what April and I have written, and will write, has been colored, inspired, and pointed to completion by the philosphy, spirit and love of words that came from our father.
Philip H. Smith, MD. (April 5, 1917-December 6, 2011)
