"The fish ARE calling"

Fond words of wisdom spoken tonight by one of many well wishers as a grateful community and esteemed colleagues gathered earlier this evening to honor and celebrate the retirement of the finest surgeon to ever call Grays Harbor home. As locals know all too well, that man is the LEGENDARY yet inexplicably humble Dr Juris Macs.



Legendary is not a term I throw around loosely. This man is truly deserving of the title. From humble Latvian beginnings, to his farming family's unlikely escape from certain death in a Siberian concentration camp, to their immigration to the Promised Land.... Macs would eventually grow up in Tacoma and later attend medical school at UW. His professional career would ultimately lead him to Aberdeen some 46 years ago.

Here, he would dedicate his personal and professional life to SERVE a community in dire need of his superior skills and services. In all my years at Grays Harbor Community Hospital, no physician has worked harder to provide professional and compassionate care to his patients.

I will tell you this without reservation.... the patient ALWAYS came first... and Macs would invariably be the last doc to leave the hospital (if at all) on any given night. He earned the respect and admiration not just of grateful patients, but colleagues in particular... a doctor's doctor.... a surgeon's surgeon.

From Grays Harbor, he would lead the charge to revolutionize the state of emergency medical care in rural communities.... from reforming acute intervention in the field to streamlining the efficiency of trauma care in hospital emergency rooms. He is the Godfather of Washington's rural EMS system, and would go on to gain regional, state, and national recognition for his contributions in this arena.

Any of you who have survived a potentially life threatening injury in rural Washington during the past half century probably owe your life to the unwavering efforts of this uber-committed surgeon. I personally know some of the old-timers on this board who would not be here if it weren't for the persistence and skills of my dear friend and fishing buddy, Juris Macs. A handful of you have had the privilege of fishing Grays Harbor on my barge with one of my greatest personal heroes.... consider yourselves blessed.

We gathered in Aberdeen tonight from far and wide in a moving celebration of this storied surgeon's career.... patients, nurses, colleagues, hospital administrators, news editors, statesmen.... to pay thanks for an exemplary life of service to a grateful community.



So as I type here overwhelmed by yet another night of insomnia, I raise my glass of Lagavulin to my colleague, my mentor, my friend.

Remember, Juris.... the fish ARE calling!