[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 83 (Tuesday, June 23, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1206]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      A TRIBUTE TO DR. JAMES TOBIN

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. BART STUPAK

                              of michigan

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 23, 1998

  Mr. STUPAK. Mr. Speaker, at the age of 74, when most men and women 
might consider that it's time to settle back and enjoy the benefits of 
retirement, a medical doctor in my district has signed a four-year 
contract with his local hospital, Bell Memorial Hospital in Ishpeming, 
Michigan. This extension means that Dr. James Tobin, who also serves as 
mayor of his home town of Ishpeming, has now begun his second half-
century of practicing medicine.
  Actually, it's been more than a half century. The son of a doctor who 
himself practiced medicine until he was 79, Dr. Tobin admitted to a 
reporter in a recent story in the Marquette Mining Journal that he 
delivered his first baby in 1947 while only a medical student. Now, 
9,000 babies later, Dr. Tobin still conducts his family practice, 
including obstetrics and gynecology, performs general surgery, and puts 
in by his own admission about 60 hours of work a week.
  His biography recounts the facts of his life and career. A native of 
the borough of Queens, New York. A 1948 graduate of the Long Island 
College of Medicine. A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Army Medical Corps. 
A resident of Marquette County in my Northern Michigan congressional 
district since 1962. A member of the Ishpeming city council and four 
times mayor of Ishpeming. An Ishpeming Chamber of Commerce member and 
former chamber president. Member of a variety of local, state and 
national medical societies. A visionary chairman of a Michigan 
governor's task force whose work helped advance the quality of neonatal 
care at Marquette General Hospital. Church member. Husband. Father of 
five girls and one boy. Grieving father of a college-age daughter 
killed in a tragic automobile accident only last December.
  This biographical outline can give us a sketch of Dr. Tobin as a 
member of his community, but it cannot come close to painting a picture 
of the impact of a family doctor on those around him. In a lifetime of 
family medical practice, Dr. Tobin has shared intimately in the lives 
of thousands and thousands of his friends and neighbors, an involvement 
rich in the pageantry of life and death. In addition to his human 
drama, Dr. Tobin in the past 50 years has witnessed a revolution in 
medicine akin to the revolutions in other branches of science.
  Advances in life-saving equipment, medicine and techniques, however, 
has not come without a trade-off in the way medicine is practiced, as 
Dr. Tobin frankly admits. Working without the benefit of CAT scans or 
Ultrasound, doctors once had to more carefully hone their skills of 
observation. ``Your eyes, your fingertips, all of your senses,'' all 
came into necessary play, he says, adding, perhaps most importantly, 
``you had to listen to your patients, too.''
  We must go beyond the biographical outline, as well, to get a better 
view of a genuine human being concerned about the health of all 
individuals in his community. As the Mining Journal stated, Dr. Tobin 
has tried to follow in his father's footsteps, assuring all those 
patients who come into his office that they will be treated. ``Dad took 
care of rich and poor alike,'' Dr. Tobin says in fond recollection. 
``Nobody ever got turned away for lack of money.''
  Mr. Speaker, the people of northern Michigan will officially 
recognize and celebrate this lifetime of dedication--this story for 
which the final chapters have not yet been written--at a special 
gathering on June 30. I ask all my colleagues in the U.S. House to join 
me in praising the selfless commitment of Dr. James Tobin to the health 
and well-being of his fellow man.

                          ____________________