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Beloved Doctor's Trail Grows Dim
by Jennifer Jones
Long before Bailey Mountain Dormitory or Disc Golf courses, a fitness trail
ran through the Mars Hill College campus.
From the Dickson-Palmer apartments, up the hill past the Edgewood House (known
to many of the students as the old president’s house), and down behind
Gibson, Brown, and Turner Dormitories, the trail provided both students and
local residents with an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors while being active,
staying healthy and getting into shape.
A bronze plaque honoring the remarkable man who built it marked the end point...until bulldozers cleared it away to make room for the new dormitory.
Few students remain who still remember the trail; fewer still remember the
name of Dr. Otis Duck, who (along with several volunteers) created a beautiful gift to his alma mater.
Founder of the Mars Hill Medical Clinic, medical physician for Mars Hill College
and one of the few physicians in Madison County, former mayor of the
town of Mars Hill, long-time member of the college board of trustees,
nominee and recipient of numerous awards -- to list all of Dr. Duck’s
accomplishments and contributions to society and to the lives of those he came
in contact with would be an impossible task.
He was born in 1918 on a farm in Madison County and was descended from one of
the college founders. He knew from the time he was a child that he wanted to be
a doctor, signing his name in the fifth grade “Dr. Duck.” For him
it was more than a career. It was a calling.
Today’s members of the medical field consider house calls and home visits
a thing of the past -- portrayed only in novels and old movies. Dr. Duck, however,
continued to make house calls until 1994, although he officially retired
in 1986.
“He had a jeep that he made a lot of house calls in,” says long-time
friend and neighbor Walter Smith. “He would drive that jeep as far as
he could, and then he would get out and walk for a mile or two to the patient’s
house to see them.”
Smith and his wife Pat moved next door to Dr. Duck and his family in 1954. As
newly-weds they were starting out a new life in a new place.
“I think he knew that Walter was from Florida and I was from Texas, “said
Mrs. Smith. “We had no family here and they [Dr.Duck and his wife Betty]
just kind of adopted us.”
Dr. Duck later delivered all three of the Smiths' children. Over his career, the doctor delivered 3,000 babies, many of them at home, without a single maternal casualty.
Dr. Duck with Ellen Coomer, college nurse |
With an abundance of memories to share, everyone who knew him can relate numerous
stories of a man who, according to Lou Miller, the college receptionist and
life- long patient of Dr. Duck,’ “…lived out the Christian
life in community, family, and church…he was a hero in my eyes.”
The Smiths say there are many stories that no one knows. “People would
come and they needed to see a doctor. They didn’t have any money, and
he’d take them to the clinic and take care of them. Nobody knows how
many patients he treated, and they couldn’t pay, and he did it anyway.
A lot of times he gave them money.”
On one occasion, Dr. Duck encountered a man a little off the roadside on Main
Street. The man had a small fire and had planned to spend the night out in the
cold. “He was pretty old and Otis had a heart of gold,” says
Smith who happened to be with him on the occasion. The man had something on
his wrist, said Smith, feeling his own wrist as he paused in remembrance. “I
think it was a big carbuncle.” “Kind of like a little tumor,”
clarified Mrs. Smith.
The couple continued the story, telling how Dr. Duck took the elderly man to
the clinic to treat his wrist, fed him, provided his breakfast, found him a
place to shower and sleep for the night, and then gave him some money, fresh
clothing and a bus ticket to his final destination in Johnson City, a much longer
journey than it would be for today’s traveler, who would have access to
highways and well-built roads.
“He treated him just like he was a member of the family,” said Mrs.
Smith. “I am sure that was not the first nor the last [person] that he
met under those circumstances.”
Click
photo to enlarge |
“His legacy lives on,” said Lou Miller. He was an inspiration to
locals and Mars Hill College students, spending many lunch breaks seeing
students at the Mars Hill College infirmary. He even had a phone line installed in the Smith’s house
so that when he was visiting with his friends and neighbors he would never miss
a single phone call from someone who needed him. In his private practice he waived medical fees for those who could not pay.
During an interview for Dr. Duck’s obituary, the former president of Mars
Hill College, Dr. Fred Bentley, called him “one of God’s
miracle creations. He was the most talented individual I have known.”
Smith looked off into the distance as he said, “I still miss him, I think
of him often.”
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Dr. Otis Duck
October 11, 1918 – April 27, 1995
1918 - Born on a farm in Madison County.
1937 - Receives Mars Hill junior college diploma
1939 - Graduates from Wake Forest College
1943 - Graduates from Hahnemann Medical College, Philadelphia
1944 - Marries Betty Ann McKinney
1944-46 - Serves in the Army Medical Corps, World War II
1946 - Returns to Mars Hill to set up private medical practice
1952-86 - Mars Hill College Physician
1967-95 - Mars Hill College Board of Trustees
1974 - Alumnus of the Year
1986 - Honorary four-year degree, Mars Hill College
1986-95 - Mars Hill College Medical Director
1995 - Dies at age 76
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Reader Comment:
Rev. B. Kris Kramer - MHC '88, 11/12/2005, 2:45:13 p.m.
Dr. Duck was my Doctor for years. He was a strong community leader and on many occasions encouraged me to make the most of my life. He has impacted so many people like myself in such wonderful and selfless ways. I am so thrilled to see this article about him and hope that the fitness trail idea (which has a new dorm on it) can find new life so that his name will continue to live on at Mars Hill.
Wanda Phillips - IT Staff, 11/15/2005, 11:50:21 a.m.
I don't think anyone who ever encountered Dr. Duck will ever forget him. He made many house calls for my daddy, who died in 1966. I still have a MHC t-shirt with a picture of the fitness trail on it. And, I remember walking on that trail.
Sarah Roberts - MHC '04, 12/5/05, 9:28 p.m.
I am an alumni from Mars Hill and I am originally from the town of Mars Hill. I have heard my grandparents and parents talk about Dr. Duck all my life. They think that he was a really great person. They have told me stories about him and what kind of person he was. I am glad that the College is recognizing him. He was a good person and a integral part of the Mars Hill town community. Thanks Hilltop for the great job that you are doing.
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