November 17, 2016 – This past Saturday night, RCAM gathered together 13 current and former pediatricians (pictured above) and about 50 current and former staff who along with significant others marked the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Raleigh Children & Adolescents Medicine.

In 1966, Dr. Bob Fleming started a solo pediatric practice on Clark Avenue near Cameron Village in a 4-room house. It wasn’t long before he was joined by Dr. Stephen Edwards and they moved to a location close to the “Old” Rex Hospital on St. Mary’s Street. In the early 1970s, Dr. Alan Goldman joined the group to became member number three of “The RCAM Big Three”.

Drs. Edwards and Goldman both addressed Saturday night’s crowd and shared many of those early memories. Dr. Edwards also spoke about the future of the practice of pediatrics when he said the following:

“As long as we take care of children in the best way possible – as long as we take care of each other – and work toward the betterment of all children – we will always have a job and always feel good about that job.”

Dr. Rick Gessner, current Managing Partner of RCAM, also spoke about our past, present and hopes for the future. He challenged our current employees to seize the potential of our daily face-to-face encounters with our patients and their families: “How you greet them and smile and explain and listen and treat makes a difference in the life of a child.”

His remarks from Saturday night are posted in the video below:

Dinner was served by Simply Delicious Catering at the City of Raleigh (COR) Museum. The museum’s displays were a timely backdrop for the evening. Dr. Gessner referenced one of them in his talk.

Debbie Maness – our current Office Manager who has intimate knowledge of the last 38 years of RCAM – said, “Saturday was a great time – great to see [our current employees] mix with so many wonderful people from our past.”

RCAM Special Guests that night included:

• “The RCAM Big Three” and their significant others looked great and seemed to be continuing to enjoy retirement:
  • Dr. Bob Fleming and his wife Nancy Jo – Bob still performs physicals for our armed services
    
  • Dr. Stephen Edwards and his wife Sylvia – Sylvia has seemed to give up retirement in favor of working with our front office staff
  • Dr. Alan Goldman and his wife Jill – Alan reminded us of his one-of-a-kind Christmas Party games. He initiated a holiday game that really needs to return. It was called “Find Your Bonus Check” and involved hiding individual bonus checks in unpredictable places in the office (let your mind wander). His annual quizzes were famous for asking things like “How many doors are in our office?” and “Finish this verse of ‘Good King Wenceslas’.”
• Two former “Head Nurses”:
  • Dixie Kennedy and her husband Melvin – Dixie was Dr. Fleming’s first hire and she set up the nursing program at RCAM
  • Shirley Gower and her husband Clarence – Shirley was an unflappable, longtime head nurse
• Two former “Weekend Nurses” who were known to bring ease to everyone they encountered (a wonderful trait for a weekend nurse)
  • Brownie Parker and her husband Wayne
  • Wyndee Langdon and her husband Andy
• Two other blasts from the not so far past:
  • Cater Riggan – Cater handled our dealings with Cigna at a time when that was not easy and was also known to keep us all straight at all times (I think its called “gravitas”)
  • Beverly Stinson and her husband Jim – Beverly was a longtime nurse who never met a stranger

We would like to formally thank all associated with RCAM – current and past – employees and spouses – patients and their families. Taking care of children in the best way possible – working toward the betterment of all children – that requires a total team effort. And so does taking care of each other.