Originally published in The Vidette-Messenger on June 25, 1971.
The Masonic 50-year Award for membership will be presented Saturday to Dr. Carl Davis for 45 years a Valparaiso physician. The award presentation at the Masonic Lodge, 113 Lincolnway, at 8 p.m., will be open to the public as a tribute to Dr. Davis.
John F. Taylor, master of the Porter Masonic Lodge, will serve as master of ceremonies, and the Indiana Grand Lodge will be represented by Past Master, Ralph E. Schenck, of this city. Music will be furnished by Ken Perkins, the lodge organist Chaplain Earl McCarty will deliver the invocation and benediction.
Prior to receiving a medical degree in 1926 from Indiana University School at Indianapolis despite extreme financial difficulties, Dr. Davis worked for the Pennsylvania Railroad in his native Logansport as a section hand, switchman and conductor. His meager finances were augmented by waiting on tables at the Lambda Chi fraternity house and by selling shoes on Saturday afternoons.
Armed with the coveted sheepskin, he initially went to Hammond, but established doctors there weren’t in need of an assistant. When he heard that Dr. E. H. Miller in Valparaiso needed someone to help him during vacation, he arrived on the local scene in 1926 and has been here ever since.
At that time, Dr. Miller was Porter County Coroner, and promptly designated Dr. Davis as his deputy. It was an era of Chicago gangster killings, rum running, Al Capone and his mob.
“They dumped many bodies, shot up and mutilated gangster-style, in our county,” Dr. Davis said. He recalled having to handle the case of murdered Capone hoodlum, Ted Newberry, whose body was found in Porter County still attired with his famed diamond belt buckle.
“They dumped bodies even in the Kankakee River with a hunk of cement or railroad rail to insure against resurfacing. I actually don’t know how many such murders I was called on to handle during the many years as coroner from 1928 to 1942.”
When he came to Valparaiso there were only a half dozen general practitioners serving the community and county. The Christian Hospital on Jefferson Street was the only such facility in the immediate area and “woefully inadequate. Most babies I delivered in the homes. I estimate in the years I’ve been here, I’ve delivered at least 1,000 babies.”
Since his speciality was anesthesiology, Dr. Davis said he performed at least 3,000 anesthesias for Dr. Miller, and in the neighborhood of 25,000 mostly at Porter Memorial Hospital, until his recent semi-retirement. He now holds part-time office hours in general practice.
Relative to need for the general practitioner in face of the rise of specialized medicine, Dr. Davis emphasized the dire need for the GP. “Specialists don’t go out on house calls. We still need doctors who can get out into the field, make house calls. I used to make them 12 to 15 hours a day. Go three or four weeks without a good night’s sleep. I was so tired I could hardly keep my eyes open, but my wife (his first wife, the former Helen McNiece who died in 1963) wouldn’t cover up for me when calls came in. I've made thousands of house calls and I’ve never regretted any minute of this service to my community. I guess I’m about one of the last general practitioners around here today.”
Dr. Davis is a member of the American Medical Association, Porter County Medical Society and the American Anesthesiological Society.
His only child by his first marriage, Dr. Robert Davis, is teaching research chemistry at Purdue University, where he was named “Best Teacher For 1971”.
The Valparaiso physician resides with his wife: the former Bess Thrun, of Valparaiso, on U.S. 30, where he now finds time to enjoy his favorite hobby of painting.
He also collects news items concerning members of the Masonic organization, and has arranged them in documented scrapbooks.