Dr. Richard E. Dormont • 1915 - 2010

Far from his roots in metropolitan New York, Dr. Richard E. Dormont became a legendary pediatrician in Minot, North Dakota, where he was in practice for nearly 60 years. Someone speculated that at 95, his age at retirement, he must have been the oldest practicing pediatrician in the United States. “No,” he is reported to have said. “There is someone else who is still at it at 101.”
           
He died Monday, July 5, 2010, at Trinity Homes in Minot where he moved following retirement less than two months ago. 
           
In recent years, The Minot Daily News published stories about his life’s work, stories that are a testament to his professionalism, his lifesaving skills, and his devotion to healing up to five generations of children from a wide region. In 2004 he estimated for The Newsthat he had reached 400,000 patient visits in his career. At the peak of his practice, he was seeing 50 to 55 patients a day. Linda Bonebrake, a nurse who worked for him for many years, said then, “We worked hard because he was so busy, but at the end of the day, he always had a thank you. I think we all respected him because he always put the kids first.”
           
One of the keys to his success in continuing to practice medicine at an advanced age was the hours he spent in daily study to stay abreast of advances in diagnosis and medical treatment. At the same time, he complained that he was still far behind, noting there were volumes of new medical information to cover and that he found it all fascinating.
           
Minot nurses cited his skill in diagnosis. One story in The Newsreported that children he referred to Minneapolis in past years got immediate attention when Dormont was their pediatrician because of the respect there for him. A Minneapolis specialist once termed Dormont the best pediatrician between Seattle and Minneapolis.
           
In 2004, Dr. Michael Holland, another Minot pediatrician, described him as “an unbelievably good pediatrician. He’s good with parents. He’s good with his patients. He’s well read. He’s just as good now as he always has been. He hasn’t lost any of his skills in spite of his age.”
           
At one time, he was the only pediatrician in Minot, and was on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week.  He did a complete physical every single time he saw a child. His daily regimen: rise early, exercise, breakfast, at  the office by 6:30 a.m. His uniform included a bow tie, which became his signature.

He was born June 5, 1915, in Brooklyn, N.Y., a son of Louis and Celia (Schlesinger) Dormont. Raised there, he enrolled at Yale University in New Haven, Conn. He earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree cum laude in 1936, and went on to the Yale School of Medicine, receiving his medical degree in 1940. He served an internship at Sydenham Hospital in Baltimore in 1940-41. From there, he went into the Army during World War II, and was commissioned a captain in the medical corps. He served on the island kingdom of Tonga in the South Pacific, where, in addition to his military patients, he also treated island natives. Sandi Dormont, the oldest of his four daughters, said that before leaving Tonga, the queen of the island chose to honor him at a special celebration. Because she could not mingle with her subjects at the event, the queen remained behind a barrier.
          
Following his discharge from active duty in 1945, Dormont served an additional two years in the Army Reserves as a major.
           
After his military service, he planned to become an internist, but he didn’t get the job he wanted. His professor of pediatrics heard about it, put in a call and Dormont was headed to a pediatrics post at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. He served an internship there from October 1945 to March 1946, and continued with his residency at Johns Hopkins until 1947. The following year, he worked as pediatrician in charge of the out-patient department at that facility and as an instructor in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.  He met Mary Jean White at Johns Hopkins where she was doing an internship in dietetics. They were married Oct. 9, 1948, in her home town of Meridian, Texas. Then he went to New Orleans to teach pediatrics at Louisiana State University School of Medicine and to work as assistant attending physician at Charity Hospital until 1950.
           
From New Orleans, he moved to Cleburne, Texas, to join the staff of the Kimbro Clinic. He later moved his family to Minot in 1953, becoming a member of the Northwest Clinic. He practiced at the clinic for 17 years before going into private practice and eventually joining Trinity Physicians Group in 2002.
           
As busy as he was, medicine was not the only interest in his life. From his youth, he had a deep interest in the outdoors, in bird watching and photography. Many of his pictures of birds are magnificent. He played the recorder and was a violinist. At one time, he was a member of the Minot Symphony Orchestra.
           
His private library is immense, his daughter reports. He read math for fun, studied philosophy, and history, and enjoyed Japanese haiku poetry. He also followed politics with great passion.
           
His daughter described her father as devoted to his profession, recalling that there was seldom a dinner at home that was not interrupted by a phone call for his medical services. The telephone was also a jarring note on Christmas morning. Yet there was family togetherness—long Sunday drives in the country, an occasional week at Clear Lake in Canada’s Riding Mountain National Park. Sometimes the family accompanied him to medical meetings that were held in places such as Estes Park, Colo.
           
She said her father was a reserved man. A party arranged for his 90th birthday overwhelmed him. He didn’t want people fussing over him, and was unaware of the impression he had made in the community. He saved all the cards he received on that occasion, as well as those he recently received for his 95th birthday.
           
In the latter years of his practice, he surrounded himself with nurses whose names, unaccountably, all begin with the letter “L.” Three, especially, came to be affectionately known as “The LaLa Girls.”
           
He was a member of the Minot Elks Lodge. When the Elks closed he and his friends, including a number of local lawyers and engineers, moved their Friday night Chautauqua-esque gatherings to a local tavern.  As for other associations he chose never to be a member of the American Medical Association. He did not approve of many of the AMA’s policies. However, throughout his long career, he maintained membership in the American Pediatrics Association. Last year, he was named a recipient of the Minot Chamber of Commerce Character Counts Builder Award.
             
A favorite family story involved Penny who received a squirt gun for Christmas one year that was shaped like a very large hypodermic syringe. Her father fell in love with this item and eventually persuaded Penny to part with it. He took it to his office. When children who came to see him for their shots, he’d have his nurse bring out the large hypodermic needle. Of course it was scary. When the real, tiny hypodermic needle arrived, the patient was greatly relieved.          Dr. Dormont is survived by daughters, Sandi Dormont, Mountlake Terrace, Wash., Wendy Dormont, Seattle, Penelope (Donald) Sterud, Johnstown, Colo., and Pamela (Trygve) Samuelson, Shoreline, Wash.; five grandchildren, Spencer Dormont Glushak, Eric Ryan Sterud, Briana Marie Sterud, Nicole Rae Samuelson and Samantha Sue Samuelson; a sister, Miriam Dormont Wagner, Pompano Beach, Fla.; four nieces and one nephew, and his former wife, Jean Dormont, Lynnwood, Wash.
           
He was preceded in death by his parents and an older brother, Paul.
           
A celebration of his life has been scheduled for Saturday, July 8, 2010, opening at 1:30 p.m. with a Tribute at 2:00 pm at Trinity Homes in Minot. People planning to attend may bring written anecdotes or other personal accounts they would like to share about Dr. Dormont. The family plans to put these stories in a memory book about their father. Such written pieces may also be brought to Thompson-Larson Funeral Home in Minot. People may sign the register there Friday from 1 to 7 p.m.
           
Among those planning to attend the Saturday celebration is Jila Toubia Ghodsian, who was a foreign exchange student from Iran and stayed at the Dormont home when Wendy Dormont was a senior at Minot High School. Jila's family subsequently escaped from Iran after the shah was deposed, immigrated to the United States, and currently is living in Beverly Hills.
           
In lieu of flowers and plants, memorials are preferred for a scholarship to the nursing program at Minot State University in care of the MSU Development Foundation in memory of Dr. Richard E. Dormont.

To sign the online guest register for Dr. Dormont
To view the online guest register for Dr. Dormont

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