Dr. Dean M. Jacoby
Dean Jacoby grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Detroit, where childhood memories included neighbors chopping fish for gefilte fish before the holidays and cheering for the Detroit Tigers and the Detroit Lions, whose first season game his father took him to when he was five. Hank Greenberg was a hero to the Jewish community. His family was steeped in medicine; his father was a pediatrician, and he was the 13th doctor in his family, with an ancestor said to have been the first physician to become a general in the United States Army. His parents married in an emotional rush the night his dying grandfather could give his blessing.
Jacoby attended high school in Detroit and studied at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Turned down for wartime service because of severe astigmatism, he later completed a pediatric residency and served in the Army between wars, where a mix-up over a colleague's illness landed him at Camp Wolters in Mineral Wells, Texas. When postwar rules closed off some states to new doctors, he chose Dallas, where the medical school and community welcomed him warmly. He built a private practice while teaching medical students one day a week for 37 years, much of it as charity work.
In Dallas, Jacoby met his wife Carol through a young Jewish social group, bonding over baseball rivalries and a shared love of dogs; they married in Tyler, Texas, in 1963, one month after President Kennedy's assassination, an event he recalled vividly and painfully. The couple raised two children, David and Amy, who took part in one of the first combined bar and bat mitzvah ceremonies in Dallas. Members of Temple Emanu-El and later founders of Temple Shalom, they were active in Jewish life. In retirement Jacoby discovered a passion for wine, teaching wine courses for 12 years and serving as an early wine judge in Texas.
Full Transcript
okay Dean 1928 Detroit Michigan yeah let's go what do you remember when you're a little kid I was thought for years old we moved into this apartment and it was down the block from the conserved temple and so almost all the people in the apartment remember the synagogue and come Easter time the carbon would rock because everybody was chopping up the cotillon for the fishes for the couple to fish and they were chopping up in the other you didn't think he could buy gefilte fish so they were sitting there with a white face and the person and the pikas chop chop chop chop chop and
the whole park would rock that was one of the things I her leave everything like that you might be just doing when I was living down here we took our kid my kids up to Detroit and I drove by this apartment right i lived in right and there was the big old crane knocking down the front windows apartment I thought I was gonna have a heart attack you can't take that away from me yeah yeah wow so you saw them thinking ability that yeah it all was left was the front wall and all the rest was gone wow did I had to be traumatic it
really was traumatic yeah I mean my kids said to my wife is it look look at daddy he's paid as it goes they were laughing my head off and I didn't think that was funny and now we have sports fan as a kid Cree some pretty amazing detroit tiger baseball players yeah yes Hank Hank Greenberg Charlie Gehringer Billy rogel is it go yeah haldo loser yeah well Hank Greenberg was kind of a hero the Jewish people yes you know until the Jewish people and try people were we were doubly upset at this when he they wouldn't let him hit the ball from the only he
had fifty eight home runs and anyone who let him pitch to him yeah he finished he had fifteen home runs babe ruth of course the record was 68 playing the Yankees the last few games of the year right and they were determined not to let him on base and the German rather not to let him hit a home run right and so they walked and they they walked him they come the ninth any day pitch to him and he struck out he was so mad and yes it was really terrible also sports wise I was five years old my daddy took me to the trite
Lions in their first season as Eddie try mine Wow they came from Portsmouth Ohio lieutenant on the Ohio River this was called Portsmouth lions and they came to Detroit in the nineteen thirty three well and my dad took me to a football game the coach was Guster a who was a member of the four horsemen ordained and he was not only the coach he was the quarterback really crazy but I saw I attended a lever not the first game by the first reason Wow the NFL has changed a little bit oh yes yeah yes almost all the plays were running plays and develop a wedge
and so on you run the passy was done very and frequently do you remember your grandparents at all my grandmother I did my mother and dad were engaged to be married my dad was from New York City and his family was going to come up did he try to see my parents get married in January of nineteen twenty-four twenty-six and my mother was a lab technician she comes home on there too from work August 11 1925 my dad meets the Lord says he were getting married tonight Wow and why because my grandfather was dying of kidney cancer she said well what about your parents is
avec with him I want your dad and know that we got married so anyway he was under a lot of narcotics anyway they got married at eight o'clock and they went into the bedroom and my grandmother said to my grandpa Morris your baby and my mother was that really the baby my mother started kindergarten when my uncle started medical school wow so so she was a baby she said baby just got married and he said quote oh dear oh dear that's the last thing he said he died at one o'clock in the morning from this now did he know that she that they got married
hmm we don't know that's been they drill enigma yes and dad's parents were hopping mad about this situation so I didn't know him I knew what my dad's parents died when I was little they saw me one time I was just a baby alright bed bugs they died one the few months later the other one when I was four but my grandmother's schiller I knew and loved her dearly she died of pemphigus when I was eight years old sounds you know what your grandfather's did for a living I don't know what my grandfather Jacoby did you call well was really jack off ski they might
grab my dad changed their name did you call because his professors at searches medical school did not pronounce Jacoby and the name of his pediatrician was Abraham Jacoby and so I take it a cobia nothin spelt the same way Abraham is the founder of America pediatrics and I don't know what he did you know they from they lived in Brooklyn they came over all my relatives came over the 1880s and from grundig a bare neck which is a study community be two in Antalya Anatolia between Pinsk admin's my friend sounds Russian right hold polishes I was convinced loans the country one was the cyst and
I never know which is with ya you know what did your dad do my dad was a pediatrician so you had this in your blood is a very early age yes not only that it was all around you of the family yeah I was a 13th doctor in my family most of one of my mother and my mother's side of family they the women all married doctors and the men were all doctors wow wow it's really good fast name yeah and my great great I don't know how many greats back when uncle was the first doctor to become a general in the United States Army
you're the first one my name is in there was the spanish-american war there's a young kid Russian time yes I'm going to affect your family well my dad went into practice after he finished his residency and he come home maybe fifty cents does pocket are not maybe nothing we my mother but if it's a patient so I all you've seen patients right but Boston didn't pay they couldn't pay they don't Ford it my mother had rheumatic fever when she was 17 and told never to have a kids if he had me it was a really problem whether I would be born alive or not because
of the fact that she had rheumatic fever had a very bad heart so she had me but she was ever able to lift things so we always had help during the Middle oppression we had help and often we had a French Canadian girl working for us as I considered as the second mother and often Georgina was her name would have to load my mother money and it was really funny and I remember I had a little red rag wagon you know first a big and I used to take my mother she used to take me the grocery started and we feel two big bags up
on groceries for fifty cents a bushel of apples was a quarter those days milk eight cents most the things were real cheap gasoline was 11 the sense well i just changed core fraid so where's your to high school etc lion and detroit michigan play any sports or anything playing sports I was the rotc there and uh in 1945 we had race riots in Detroit National Guard was stationed another football field intense and so on during this time and my dad was real lucky because he had a nurse with him was in uniform and he drove right through that area mate Oh doctor and they let
him go they were dumping cars and everything else that day there in those race riots now where did you go on to college Brown University in providence rhode island you know where did you do that before service yes I am this was in that period in between the wars you know right after the right I turned 18 when the war was over about the year so right world war to end this yeah and then when they called me up for physical examination have a very bad eyes and so the doctor said read that chart nice at what chart he said well we could see a
top letter I said yet siiii is always he and he said walk up to you see it closely then took your big red pencil of my paper a young doctor was just a finishes internship and never seen a lot of I things in anything start exam Isis keep your eyes stay yet since I can't i've got severe astigmatism and so I don't you know stigmatism people have we haven't their eyes go like this river yeah so they turned me down then what I became a the doctor and then we had to go into the service so what I finished my residency I went on the
service and where were you stationed this is a real interesting story I was co-chief resident Children's Hospital Michigan and the other fellows name was Bob Rooney Bob went into the service and they said that may know where i want you for six months so i stayed the medical school what was the sense of doing anything you know i only had six months i know what's going in and Bob comes home from Christmas for Christmas vacation he says you know it's called a hospital with pneumonia and I said come over my house and so on I'm having a party and so on so he met me
also for grad round ones gave her my house and he said me don't count on your your duh I was assigned in the France I've been to France and I love the idea was going back to France and sold my car and everything else he said you were orders may be changed get down to Fort Sam where all the doctors were in the Army take this the Your Honor medical service school and a third fourth week there I was called into this majors office and he says to me says you're being orders are being change you're going to camp Walter's of Mineral Wells Texas and
I said they don't need the pediatrician there I said my koche rest'll was there he says really he said and so he gets on the phone and I'm standing as this can he says oh really is that so by gosh I wouldn't believe it I'm swept up a storm of course he says captain you better sit down i sat down he's your friend has tuberculosis and what I told he had pneumonia what takes eight weeks to get a report of the aspirants and the stomach for tuberculosis so I had to replace him later that day I get a message from him because he's over the
part of the hospital there come and see me and I walk into the room and I said why are you sob what we saw was wrong I said I replace new account blowers he's well he didn't get along with the people up there and so he was mad as hell but that's what happened and he did not have tuberculosis oh wow you know and there was somebody else's culture 5th army had laboratories screwed up why and so I wound up here in Texas by a freak right right it made she's been a month try to find out what's going on with his lungs and never
found anything so how long were you in the service couple years origami army it was between the two wars I finished my residency see oh so you're just before Vietnam era yeah okay so I got out of the service and then then we were starting to send some few troops and right advisors and so on the next year and then I had a michigan license which was good for any state of the union exceptional florida flooded the night everybody because too many doctors went down to Florida direct the war so they say we're taking no more out of how people say people so I said
where am I going to practice my dad had died me a year before I got in a medical school my mother died when I was in the service no brothers sisters and so I was free to go anywhere and I said well should I go to San Francisco Seattle or you know think of it I came here to Dallas and people here in Dallas said oh good I was went down the medical school so we need pediatricians like man at that time the staff that the medical school there had only four doctors on my staff and they what happens is all the doctors in Dallas
were asked to help in the medical school so so I came over here because they really gave me a real greeting SAT private practice but would teach the medical students one day a week and I did that for 37 years wow there's a lot of fun yeah not a fun how is the medical practice changed over the years I mean from when you were first seeing patients yeah to now when a pediatrician sees a patient what's the difference well of course the big differences we didn't discuss you know money or anything else people came in they paid you know right there was no problem and
i was doing essentially charity work by teaching the medical students because I've seen patients the emergency room runs on and so but we never money there wasn't a problem right until the insurance companies came along and it really screwed it up they really have screwed it up and doctors nowadays said well insurance company won't let me do this they let he do that and they think I gotta call him up and everything else not my wife came to work for me when the kids turn teenagers and so on and she would talk the insurance company about this various things and they'd keep her out hold
on she was Heather she had the worst job I could think of but dealing with insurance beetles it was horrible speaking of your wife where did you guys meet here in Dallas my best friend at that time was David Sakura the ends of the four other fellows decided by a condominium cold Avenue a block and a half south of the docks and so they bought and I moved into it that's where our first live and so they was going was dating my wife and I didn't think much of our time you know so a year later the lot of the young Jewish people over 30
both male and female decided to get an organization going right and they had a party and she made eyes at me and then we started arguing about who's the better team York Yankees or Detroit Tigers that didn't then our second date I whipped out a picture on a dog when I was growing up and she without a picture her dog I wasn't going to marry anybody who didn't love dogs and the zone so anyway that's the way it got started then six months later we were married Wow very over in Tyler Texas in a snit the worst storm that hit North Texas because it was
on a Sunday we had a party the night before and that morning I all people were invited for her from Dallas they called me up and say Dean we can't come over to the police a block oh hi we had seven inches of snow and ice and they're here in Dallas we had five inches over in time well what yours is nineteen sixty sixty three we got married one month after Kennedy was shot and the dead assassination affect you guys yeah we were all felt so depressed because of this thing situation we had it I was over in an East northwest highway and there ferndale
and there was a pharmacy across three will enter or I was eating grilled cheese sandwich see you remember these things because they're so unusual and they suddenly announced that and i dropped my sandwich but the announcing was shot but we didn't know where it was dinner and of course 20 minutes later they said he was dead and that afternoon every appointment that I had cancelled and every doctor I talked to Lisa yeah we just closed her office up and so it was really something and I was engaged my wife at the time we were going to go out to supper on lunch and sunday and
she called Maddie when are you coming over I said I keep trying to shade starting shave and then bulletin bulletin bulletin she says that's when Ruby shot Oswald and then you can I couldn't finish shaving because of all the Bolton's going on she said Dean chin turn to televisions you don't think about stuck come on you're kidding me I said turn on your television set so we went finally went out and to to lunch and we could have found a place open finally found a chicken shack or something like that and we went in there and everybody looked at this like we were spies or
something like uh on the following week I had a patient come in she said you know when had to my husband I said no he was a traveling sales when he was over at Mississippi and he started sign in to those in stay overnight and he signed his name Dallas Texas and they said sure we don't take anybody from Dallas and it was really something i would drive around town that time you wouldn't see a car on the hardly any cars in the highway you didn't see any people outside and I felt like doubts was bombed and bombed all the people but left all the
billions standing and it was really and everywhere you win people say you're from dallas texas and you know we were really frowned upon at that time was that it was a very depressing time it was the happiest time in your life I guess when I went to France would my wife on a on a wine trip you know enjoyed that immensely what was that 73 I think with yeah yeah yeah we ever shuttle who was the better team eggs are uh modifiers my wife and I were decided we got to take a master's degree in art history and see we were doing this at night
time we're gonna class once a week and her drama here's was over this of you I had a full-time associate night who tells me he's leaving my practice he's moving into Virginia his wife wanna live in Virginia so I finished it all of the work forever the master's degree rather then but I hadn't written a thesis or anything so I mean I thought well gosh I'm going to be on call a time I got it can't go on this way so I'm moping around my wife says mean there's a wine course be taught at Shep's community center and let's take it up on some liquor
wine or anything else come on let's take it you need to do something so we came over here and took the course in one course the second is section of the third session of course i turn the girl says you know I've got all kinds of degrees and this is more fun than anything ever done and we had a bulb went on took seven courses wild horses and then I was asked by the junior college teach the water courses and after several years of doing I said well neither junior college because I'm you know they're taking money away from me for like a vet put
in the wines and so I taught widen courses for 12 years and also became the first whether the first call judge of the Texas wine Association well and so we had it win a great time and then later on we got Aldens absent fin del associates and producers and had a great time to baseman national tasting here no no were you and your wife involved at all in the Jewish community yeah to a degree i was raised more more independent and so my folks didn't send me to Sunday school or anything like that I learned a lot of it all and I course i was
in Jewish neighborhoods writer so he couldn't help it when I we got married we were remember the temple emanuel and we were there for a long time and they had a rabbi or a row fond of who was finally they there was a big fight over temper and he got kicked out and there were 38 of us who quit the temple emanuel and we formed cologne temple shalom and so we went to services every friday then they got a rabbi i thought was to orthodox for us and so we quit and so but in the meanwhile our kids were we were temple emanuel during the
time my kids were growing up and so dave was 13 and amy was a lever and a half they got bar Mitzvahed bat Mitzvahed it was the first comp combined well mitzvah yeah you know here in dallas in the medical field all the advancements that they have today compared to when you started was an all stuff that was just offshoots of everything you guys were doing back then you know when you were practicing i think most was I can't think of that yeah is there any amazing advancements in pediatrics that you've seen well of course the big thing now is the genome thing you know
your men you're mapping the genome by doing this we're going to pick up a lot of diseases and we have picked up a lot of diseases that are genetic in nature that we didn't know before hand and you and carol had two children and daughters son what advice would you want to leave to the next generation don't believe everything you hear and say and stick with it thanks for doing this today yeah did a great job you