No Rest for ‘Country Doctor of the Year’

MORTON, Miss. â€”  Dr. Howard Clark’s hands are steady and his voice is confident. Memories from the day he opened his family practice 44 years ago are as fresh as his just-completed hospital rounds.

At age 73, Clark sees dozens of patients a day at his clinic, works the night shift at the Scott Regional Hospital emergency room at least four nights a week, makes hospital rounds and cares for 120 patients at the local nursing home. He serves as physician for all Morton High School athletic teams.

And he makes house calls.

Clark’s dedication to rural Mississippi recently earned him the Country Doctor of the Year award from Staff Care, a national temporary physician staffing firm.

“This guy’s amazing,� said David Faries, a Staff Care spokesman. “He’s still working 90 to 100 hours a week dedicating himself so much to the community. . . . At a time when he could be thinking about retiring, he’s working on purchasing a mobile MRI and CAT scan.�

Part of the award is a vacation-- Staff Care will provide a doctor to take his place for a week.

What will he do with the rare time off?

“Maybe I’ll work the emergency room,� Clark said. Or he might follow the Mississippi State University Bulldogs to Omaha if they play in the College Baseball World Series, as they have done in years past.

Clark’s loyalty to his alma mater shows in his office, where the words “Who let the dawgs out?� stream across his computer screen and a pair of maroon shoes adorns his bookshelf.

The busy doctor also finds time to teach Sunday school at the First Baptist Church and serve as chairman of the Scott County Democratic Party.

“He’s got a big heart,� said Rickey Harrell.

Harrell, 52, had brought his 81-year-old mother, Annie Harrell, to visit Clark. The doctor has been treating her heart and lungs, with the help of a specialist in Jackson. He has been the family’s doctor for more than 30 years, doing everything from routine checkups to a late-night surgery when Rickey had appendicitis.

“He’s like a member of the family,� Rickey Harrell said.

Clark deflects his patients’ compliments.

“I wouldn’t do anything else,� he says, smiling.

It was war that steered him into medicine. After his high school graduation in 1944, he joined the Army and served in the South Pacific. A shortage of medics gave him a job.

“There were crash courses all the way,� he said.

Back in the States, he married and enrolled in premed at Mississippi State University. He went to medical school at the University of Mississippi and Tulane University. His residency was at the University Medical Center in Jackson.

Adept at surgery and emergency care, he decided to become a family doctor because he likes dealing with people. “If I’m going to treat you,� Clark said, “I’m going to treat you. I don’t want to treat just your kidneys or your heart.�

He said he chose to practice in Morton, a small central Mississippi town where poultry is the main industry, after being encouraged to do so by local people during a visit to the town. He added: “The good Lord wanted me here.�

Clark did all the surgery and delivered all the babies in Morton, a town of 3,200, for more than three decades. Ten years ago he let a specialist take over the town’s surgery.

“I have deep appreciation for him,� said Dr. Mohammad Athar, a radiologist at Scott Regional Hospital. “ . . . It is common to hear from patients that he doesn’t care about the fee. . . . He will find some way to help them.�

After opening his practice, Clark considered specializing in surgery but found he couldn’t spare time away from Morton, recalled his oldest daughter, Eunice Williams, 58.

Clark’s first wife, Mildred, died 33 years ago. His second wife, Jackie, had six children, just as he did when they married; they later had a child together. Altogether, Clark has reared 13 children, 22 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. His daughter said Clark always found time for the children.