Clay Gilbert, DO, ’63, stands on the porch of his home delivering opening remarks during the National Register of Historic Places marker unveiling.
Behind every endowment is a story; this is one of them.
"For nearly 30 years, patients came here night and day as they knew help was available." Behind the plaque which proclaims these words, stands the home, and more specifically, the porch, of which they speak. The distinctive 1919 "Airplane Bungalow" styled Joffre-Gilbert house sits modestly behind the signs denoting its recognition by multiple societies, including being listed in the National Register of Historic Places, filled with stories of years gone by.
On that porch, a young Clay Gilbert, DO, '63, watched his father, a former English teacher turned second-generation pioneer doctor, treat an endless stream of patients with gentle hands and genuine compassion. During a time when there was no hospital near their developing town of Irving, Texas, Dr. Gilbert's father was often the only doctor available. In the evenings, after he closed his office and returned home, his front porch became something akin to a local urgent care clinic. Dr. F.M. Gilbert and his wife, Dorothy, a nurse, worked together to provide 24-hour medical care and treated everything from simple first aid to welcoming babies into the world.
Dr. Gilbert's parents opened the town's first medical clinic and consistently made 18-20 afterhours house calls and patient visits in a single evening. Heralded as pillars of the community, Dr. Gilbert's father served for a time as mayor, school board member and bank president. His mother was a leader in various clubs, churches, and societies.
However, the legacy didn't start there. Dr. Gilbert was raised watching his family lead and invest in the growing Irving community. Dr. Gilbert's grandfather, also a pioneer doctor who educated physicians for many years, became the first medical care provider in Irving in the late 1800s and helped settle the town.
A Family Committed to Healing
Guided by this formative upbringing, Dr. Gilbert knew his path in life from an early age. Seeking to follow the ideal of the compassionate country doctor modeled by his father and grandfather, he found many similarities in the philosophies of A.T. Still and osteopathic medicine. In 1963, Dr. Gilbert graduated from A.T. Still University's Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine and continued his family legacy. Now, he strives to ensure that legacy does not end.
Dr. Gilbert established an endowment that will be known as the Clay W. Gilbert, DO, Endowed Chair for Family Medicine. From his time as a student, he was impressed by the faculty and school's quest to instill compassion, in addition to knowledge and skills, in the students. As Dr. Gilbert puts it, "They wanted to turn out not only good doctors, but good, compassionate doctors."
A student can only achieve their full potential if they have the right instructors to push them. In American higher education, endowed professorships and chairs have become the gold standard for recruiting and retaining faculty, recognizing them, and enabling both professors and students to advance their programs and research. And, given his personal and family ties to both education and medicine, that is why Dr. Gilbert correctly views his chair as his legacy to future osteopathic physicians.
"I believe education is the best legacy that I can leave," he explains. "I want to help the College to have the finest family practice department that can be obtained to educate all the young students of the future. It is a legacy that will go on and on."