[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 156 (Monday, November 8, 1999)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2294-E2295]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  A TRIBUTE TO SENIORS HELPING PEOPLE

                                 ______
                                 

                     HON. RANDY ``DUKE'' CUNNINGHAM

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, November 5, 1999

  Mr. CUNNINGHAM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Al Graff 
and Dick Wheelock for their humanitarian contributions to our local 
community. The article below from the June 17, 1999, Coast News 
highlights their tremendous accomplishments in providing health care to 
the uninsured in San Diego County. Mr. Graff and Dr. Wheelock deserve 
our sincere congratulations for their efforts. They should be proud of 
their work, and I am proud to have such fine individuals as 
constituents.

                  [From the Coast News, June 17, 1999]

             Retired Friends Tending To The People's Needs

                            By Jack Broward

       EDEN GARDENS--There is no more appropriate term in 
     describing Al Graff, 80, and his partner Dick Wheelock, 73, 
     than synergism: working together as a team, they exceed what 
     could otherwise be achieved individually.
       Yet, judged individually, Graff stood at the very pinnacle 
     of his engineering profession as an executive with General 
     Atomics before retirement in 1983 as director of 
     International Operations.
       Dr. G. Richard Wheelock, founding Medical Director in 1955 
     of the Del Mar Medical Clinic, was for the seaside community 
     of Del Mar, only the area's second medical doctor to practice 
     there at that time. It was not long before Wheelock's medical 
     colleague retired, leaving him as the only physician in town.
       Like all areas of North San Diego County's coastal region, 
     the climate, lifestyles and informality attracted tens of 
     thousands of new residents. In time, new doctors, joined the 
     clinic as patient load increased.
       In retrospect, Wheelock thinks now that he might have never 
     retired without the retirement party that his wife threw for 
     him without advance notice!
       For as many years as he can remember, Rancho Santa Fe 
     resident Al Griff has been an advocate for social justice, a 
     calling he refers to as ``the needs of the people''
       The Berkeley graduate forged over the years, a dedication 
     to social justice that eventually manifested itself in his 
     ordination as a deacon at Solna Beach's St. James Catholic 
     church. His new role in life began the day after his 
     retirement in 1983.
       The plot thickens with Wheelock's retirement from practice 
     in Del Mar after 44 years as ``the village doctor.''
       Graff's good health, agile mind and aggressive spirit were 
     the elements key to the ultimate establishment of a medical 
     clinic here in Eden Gardens.
       His lengthy friendship with Wheelock included participation 
     in community efforts to aid the poor and needy residents of 
     Tijuana, ``We were returning from Tijuana one Saturday 
     afternoon after delivering medical supplied donations from 
     area hospitals in the region,'' recalls Graff, ``Dick asked 
     me what I thought about opening a small clinic adjoining St. 
     Leo's Mission.''
       Through arrangements made by St. James Pastor, the Reverend 
     John Howard (St. Leo's Mission is a subsidiary of St. James), 
     it was agreed that a clinic was needed. The Mission, located 
     on some four acres of property, is a focal point of community 
     life in Eden Gardens. Social as well as religious events draw 
     parishioners to the facility for wide ranging activities 
     throughout the week.
       ``We situated the clinic in a single room in the back of 
     the church, using the kitchen facilities as a patient waiting 
     room.'' Dick Wheelock recalls, telling how, in 1992, the 
     clinic's presence was a ``word-of-mouth'' operation.
       Sunday Mass announcements included (and still do) a run-
     down about clinic hours, special education awareness 
     programs, vaccinations for babies, a yearly mammogram program 
     for women over 40 years of age as well as numerous other 
     special programs offered by the clinic. In a short time, the 
     clinic patient load outgrew its single-room operation. The 
     addition of two more small rooms plus an indoor patient 
     waiting room that also serves as the filing-administration 
     section was eventually provided.
       Thursday evenings from 6-9 p.m. and Saturday mornings from 
     9 until noon are the

[[Page E2295]]

     current scheduled hours of operation. But I noticed in visits 
     for this story, that the medical staff, comprised of Wheelock 
     and an all-volunteer team of area physicians, medical 
     students from UCSD, nurses, technicians and administrative 
     personnel remained at the clinic as long as patients were 
     waiting to be seen.
       ``From the beginning, we realized the need for dispensing 
     dignity and integrity along with medical treatments,'' notes 
     Graff, explaining that the $5 per-patient ``donation'' may 
     only be a token exchange for services and payment. ``But, 
     this helps preserve the patient's dignity. Those unable to 
     pay are treated with equal respect and medical care. All 
     examinations, medications and related services are free. But 
     the $5 fee creates a fund used for the purchase of logistical 
     needs not donated by outside sources,'' Graff explains, 
     noting that the clinic's overall operations are supported by 
     grants that he applies for and receives from a variety of 
     institutions and non-profit organizations.
       With diabetes within Hispanic communities a major concern 
     for the medics, the clinic conducts weekly diabetic health 
     education programs for Eden Garden families. There is an 
     estimated population of 12,500 residents in the area, 
     according to Graff. Ninety-five percent of those who come to 
     the clinic are from working poor families, the majority of 
     whom are without health coverage, he said, emphasizing that 
     ``Everyone who comes through that door is accepted.'' 
     Patients on MediCare are referred to medical facilities 
     elsewhere, it was noted. On a Saturday morning during one of 
     my visits to the clinic, a multitude of patients, mothers 
     with their infant children, husbands and wives, school-age 
     youngsters, all were waiting in a patio shaded by trees. 
     Patient loads currently are running at about 60 patients on 
     each of the twice per-week days of operation.
       One of the most redeeming qualities associated with the 
     clinic is first, that an efficient, highly professional 
     medical facility is maintained in close proximity to 
     community residents. Next, that those patients seen by the 
     clinic relieves the burden that otherwise would necessarily 
     be cared for by public health agencies, explained Victor 
     Tostada, another of the staff volunteers who serves as 
     administrative director.
       In an annual report issued last February, it is emphasized 
     that ``All patients, especially infants and children, are 
     accepted regardless of race, color, origin or creed.''
       In its mission statement accompanying the report, it is 
     also noted that the clinic presents ``no competition with 
     medical, dental or hospital professions, but a relief of a 
     burden of caring for the working poor.''
       States Deacon Graff, ``We estimate about $600,000 yearly in 
     services and medicines as well as specialized requirements 
     (provided at no cost by other medical institutions) are 
     provided for our patients free from any impact on local, 
     state or federal government resources. Because St. Leo's 
     Mission is the sponsoring agency, our patients accept our 
     services as they do in all other church-sponsored benefits.''
       Among the clinic volunteers on duty during my visits was 
     Dr. Marsha Blount, a resident family practice physician at 
     Sharp's. Rounding out a full year of service, the North 
     Carolina native and graduate of Duke University and Jefferson 
     Medical School in Philadelphia, commented to me, ``You learn 
     to think on your feet here. It is hands-on experience that 
     would otherwise be hard to gain.''
       Another resident physician at Sharp's, Jill Panitch, agreed 
     with her colleague and told how second and third-year 
     resident physicians volunteer one year of service to the 
     clinic.
       Michael Tilton, an undergraduate medical student at UCSD 
     has been volunteering his services for the past 18 months. 
     And fifty-year, now-retired nurse Martha Moyer, a Del Mar 
     resident, explained between treating patients that the clinic 
     tries to serve the working poor from Del Mar to Encinitas. 
     She recalls in 1992 reading about the clinic that was 
     intended to open at St. Leo's in Eden Garden. ``That's how I 
     wound up as a volunteer.''
       It is reflection of my limited abilities to not include in 
     this story all of the names of clinic volunteers. The 
     redeeming quality about their service, though, is that they 
     serve--at no cost--because they are needed. Fulfillment, 
     professional and personal, is their reward.
       Already on the drawing board at the clinic is a 600 square-
     foot dental facility to be constructed by volunteer labor and 
     funds supplied by the parish of St. James and St. Leo's 
     Mission as well as from the Del Mar and Sunrise Rotary Club 
     members. Three dental chairs, x-ray equipment and ancillary 
     requirements are identified in the construction plans, 
     according to Graff. His programs, current as well as those on 
     the horizon, are extensive and infinite in measures of 
     contributions to be made to community life in Eden Gardens. 
     He manages dedication, consistent with his and Wheelock's 
     accomplishments of the past.
       I waited until now to introduce more fully Dr. Wheelock, a 
     type-cast-physician who may've posed a half-century ago for 
     one of artist Norman Rockwell's cover paintings for Saturday 
     Evening Post. He reflects in his conversation and mannerisms 
     a sense of genuine modesty, characteristic of remote regions 
     of Arizona and the southwest where he was born and raised.
       Recalling his closing years as head of the old Del Mar 
     Clinic, Wheelock told of young doctors at the clinic 
     approaching him on the subject of expanding the facility that 
     he founded, keeping pace with the population growth and 
     adding to a facility that was dedicated to serving the 
     medical needs of families in the community. I felt the 
     pressures but I just didn't feel comfortable with the 
     prospects of expanding. So I retired.
       But not for long. Today, after six years of building-back 
     growth in his and Al Graff's new clinic, there has likely 
     been restored in the career of Dick Wheelock, a sense of 
     picking up where he left off so many years ago, during the 
     infancy of his Del Mar Clinic. Says his partner. ``Dick 
     Wheelock is deeply devoted to his profession and those who 
     look to him for relief from pain. He has great empathy for 
     his fellow human being.''
       Which makes this story all the more remarkable is that two 
     individuals in totally different professions would become 
     friends in later life, then partners in an endeavor whose 
     function is enriched with feelings of warmth, compassion and 
     love for those less fortunate than themselves.

     

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