Beallsville dentist graduates to retirement
BEALLSVILLE – Come Friday, 38 years to the day that he started practicing dentistry in Beallsville and 40 years after graduating from West Virginia University’s dental school, Dr. Robert Howes says he will be “graduating.”
“It’s almost like another graduation,” Howes said of his retirement. Howes said he enjoyed the connections he made with his patients over the years. He estimates that he’s seen about 10,000 patients throughout his career, with an active caseload of 2,500 to 3,000 patients.
“It ended up that most of your patients are your friends,” Howes said.
Howes’ office has been in the same location on Route 40 in Beallsville since he first started in private practice, one month after his discharge from the U.S. Army in 1970.
“I don’t like to move. When I started, I rented the building, then I bought the building. I’ve been very happy here,” Howes said.
His office is located four miles from his parents and the home he grew up in and handy to his home in Malden as well. While he once considered a military career and the possibility of living in many different places, it was his time in the military that resulted in his remaining in the area where he and his wife were raised.
Howes enlisted in the Army just after graduating from dental school. His wife was expecting their second child and he thought it would be good for her to be near her family while he was away in the military.
“We bought the house and we had it four days when I was sent to Fort Sam Houston,” Howes said.
Howes served two years in the Army, including a 12-month tour of duty in Vietnam. Howes said he didn’t take any of his leave during those 12 months, opting to serve straight through instead of going through the pain of saying goodbye to his wife a second time.
“The war was interesting. You wouldn’t ask to do it, but it’s unbelievable,” Howes said. “I always felt privileged to get to know the troops and to treat the troops.”
Howes said he worked in very basic conditions during the war, serving with Mobile Army Surgical Hospitals (MASH) with the 1st Cavalry and the 11th Cavalry.
“They were the ones doing the really rough work,” Howes said.
Dentistry was only a small part of what he did with the MASH unit.
“We were trained as triage officers and that was our primary duty,” Howes said. “We were fired on by our own artillery. It was the South Vietnamese, but it was us. That was the worst time.”
Howes said that after the shelling was over and the wounded had been assessed, there were 18 to 20 bodies lying in a row.
“I’d look at their hands and see wedding rings, and I’d think, ‘Oh, the poor mom or wife or family back home praying for this poor fellow, and he’s done,'” Howes said.
Howes said returning home from Vietnam had its own difficulties. He had been warned not to wear his uniform home because of the anti-war mood in the country. Because he hadn’t gone on leave, he didn’t have any civilian clothes with him, so he had to wear his uniform home. Howes said he thought the animosity had been exaggerated until he arrived on U.S. soil and was greeted at the airport by a man draped in a U.S. flag who called him a baby-killer and tried to spit on him.
The experience was less dramatic, but equally disturbing, when he tried to get a business loan to open his dental practice, he said.
“The banker said, ‘How do we know you aren’t on dope or became an alcoholic while you were in Vietnam?’ You had a hard time when you came back because of all the stories,” Howes said.
Conditions for a country dentist were only slightly less primitive than what he saw in Vietnam at times. Howes recalled his first school visit to provide student dental checkups. The janitor brought him a bucket of water to use to wash his hands; the doctor conducted physicals behind the furnace because it was the only private place available, and students used an outhouse behind the school. That was in 1970. Howes conducted his final school visit just a few weeks ago. Sanitary conditions have improved tremendously, Howes said.
In addition to conducting school dental exams, Howes has returned to school to keep up with his profession over the years, learning business practices, new techniques and the use of new materials. His office, however, never has been computerized. Howes said the bookkeeping and record-keeping systems he set up early in his career have served him well.
“Computerization of the office had nothing to do with the care of the patients,” Howes said. “It’s always people-to-people. You can have the technology, but without those relationships, it’s nothing.”
Howes said he searched for 18 months for someone to buy his practice.
“My standard was to find someone I would want to go to, me and the staff and my family. I talked to about 15 people but couldn’t find anyone who wanted to work in a rural area,” Howes said. “For some people, it’s just a financial thing, and that’s no good. I wanted somebody who would care about the people.”
Howes said closing the practice instead of selling it isn’t the best financial decision, but for him, it was the only decision he could make.
“Ethically and morally, it was the right thing to do,” Howes said.
Howes said he has no regrets about the decision to close the practice or any of the decisions he’s made in life.
“I feel that God has his plan and I’ve been living it. I really feel that God’s in control of things,” Howes said. This is right where I was supposed to be. I’ve never been unhappy. I’m looking forward to this. It’s just another graduation.”
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