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Dr. Skip Gay
#1
Skip was my roommate for a S. CA Dead tour.

Quote:Dr. George 'Skip' Gay dies in Alaska
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer

Dr. George "Skip" Gay, an anesthesiologist who donned tie-dyed shirts, bell-bottoms and love beads in San Francisco, pioneered drug treatment at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic and founded a new medical discipline to care for ailing concert-goers, died in Alaska on Feb. 13 after a brief illness. He was 77.

He was a Renaissance man descended from generations of physicians, spoke Greek, German and Latin, was an accomplished artist and loved the Grateful Dead.

"His idea of a romantic evening was to read me Shakespeare sonnets," said Penny Miller, his companion of 29 years - and wife since 1991 - who met him at a Blue Oyster Cult concert at the Oakland Coliseum when she was 22.

Dr. Gay was born in St. Louis, the son of a doctor who created one of the first Mobile Army Surgical Hospital units on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day. He spent four years in the Navy in a unit that rescued downed pilots during the Korean War. He was schooled at Amherst, graduated from the University of Missouri medical school in 1961 and trained in anesthesiology at Boston Children's Hospital.

He was drawn to San Francisco from Chicago by the music scene surrounding the Summer of Love in 1967 and set up a private anesthesiology practice. But he was so captivated by the emerging hippie culture of the city that he closed his practice, sold his red Corvette and began volunteering full time at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinic.

When starry-eyed hippies were succeeded by waves of young junkies wasted on heroin, Dr. Gay was in the forefront of warning about the danger. He developed techniques for treating heroin addicts at the Free Clinic - working closely with Dr. David Smith, the clinic's founder - and started Rock Medicine with promoter Bill Graham in 1973 to care for patrons at Grateful Dead and Led Zeppelin concerts in Golden Gate Park.

"He spawned an awful lot of careers," said Wes Field, the current director of Rock Medicine. "Since he died, I've heard from doctors, nurses, chief executives of ambulance companies and medical students. He always took the time to talk with anyone who wanted to talk to him. I considered him my mentor. So many others do as well."

Dr. Gay left Rock Medicine about 15 years ago, but the organization is bigger and busier than ever. Last year, it provided care for patrons at more than 550 rock concerts in Northern California. His work led to the creation of a new medical specialty, Event Medicine, which trains doctors to deal with everything from heatstroke and heart attack to alcohol intoxication and drug overdoses in crowded environments.

Although he dealt with the dark side of the drug culture, Dr. Gay was a long-haired devotee of the music of the 1960s. "Skip was very much a Deadhead," said Field. "Rock Medicine personnel are all Deadheads. It's part of the persona. It's part of our history."

Dr. Gay eventually took a job providing medical care for prisoners as a physician in the California Department of Corrections. He also joined the department of anesthesiology at UC Davis Medical Center, where he was an associate professor.

Five years ago, seeing a need for medicine in rural America, he moved to Valdez, Alaska. He was the only anesthesiologist within a 100-mile radius. Although age was taking a toll on his health, Dr. Gay kept working until two weeks before his death. He died in an Anchorage hospital, apparently of a heart attack, after a brief illness.

Dr. Gay is survived by his wife, a nurse practitioner at UC Davis Medical Center who would regularly fly up to Alaska to help her husband in his new environs. He is also survived by daughters Georganna "Janno" Gay of Pawlet, Vt., and Tennee Anderson of Mendocino; sons Roger of Montclair (San Bernardino County) and Daniel of Indianapolis; a sister, Tito Gay of St. Louis; and seven grandchildren.

A memorial service is planned for the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View on March 30 at noon. Donations in Dr. Gay's name may be made to Rock Medicine, P.O. Box 756, Roseville, CA 95661-9998.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...GVBO5E.DTL

Quote:George R. "Skip" Gay M.D.
GAY, MD, George R. ''Skip''

George R. "Skip" Gay, MD died February 13th, 2008 in Anchorage, Alaska after a short illness. He was 77 years old.
He was born January 9th, 1931 in St. Louis, Missouri. He attended John Burroughs School and then went on to Amherst University. He served four years as a Navy combat air crewman during the Korean War. Upon return, he attended medical school at the University of Missouri, graduating in 1961. Before graduating with honors, he served as class president and one of the first editors and cartoonists for the student yearbook, MUtation. He completed a surgery internship at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, a residency in anesthesiology at the University of Missouri and a fellowship in anesthesiology at Boston Children's Hospital. Gay was also a fellow of the American Academy of Family Practice and the American College of Emergency Medicine. After a stint in private practice in Springfield, Mo., he became an assistant professor at the University of Chicago.
As the country was caught up in the fascination of the Hippie Movement with the corner of Haight and Ashbury streets in San Francisco as its epicenter, so was Skip Gay. Drawn to the events and energy of San Francisco in the sixties, Gay opened a private practice in anesthesiology in San Francisco in 1967. He soon gave up his practice however, to devote more time to his volunteer work at the Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic. His dedication was intense and in time he gave up his corvette, his apartment in Tiburon and switched his Brooks Brothers suits for love beads and tie-dye tee shirts and jeans.
Dr. Gay founded a heroin clinic and drug detoxification unit at the Haight-Ashbury Free Medical Clinic, where he pioneered the treatment of drug abuse and volunteered as an emergency medicine physician. He testified before a National Institute Health committee in 1969 and was soon granted funds to create a detoxification, rehabilitation and education program. He built programs using a multi-disciplinary approach that involved medical and dental care, withdrawal-management therapies and psychological counseling.
In 1973 he created Rock Medicine, a program that has provided free medical services at thousands of concerts - from the early days of Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead to over 550 concerts and festivals last year and tending to over 3,000 patients.
As director of the free clinic's training programs, Gay shared what he learned with hundreds of medical students. Throughout his first 10 years at the clinic, Gay served as a clinical instructor for state universities in California, Texas and Hawaii. In 1989, Gay returned to academic medicine and joined the department of anesthesiology at the University of California Davis Medical Center. As an associate professor, he mentored medical students and residents, and was the principal investigator in several significant research projects.
Dr. Gay also worked as a physician for the California Department of Corrections. During his tenure as chief medical officer at a large correctional center, he created a program that provided emergency care for inmates who battled floods and fires in the state.
For the last five years Dr. Gay worked in Valdez, Alaska. He found enormous satisfaction in practicing medicine in a small rural community. As the only anesthesiologist for 100 miles in any direction, Gay provided essential emergency medical and anesthesia services as member of the Valdez Medical Clinic. Alaska offered Gay the chance to fish for his trophy salmon and show his champion Samoyeds.
He is survived by his wife, Penny Miller; his sons, Roger (Lorraine) of Monte Vista, California, and Daniel (Brenda) of Indianapolis, Indiana; his daughters, Georganna "Janno" Gay, of Pawlet, Vermont and Tennee (Surya) Anderson of Mendocino, California, and his sister, Tito Gay (Findlay) of St. Louis, and seven grandchildren.
Memorial services will be held on March 3rd at the Valdez Medical Center and on Sunday, March 30th, 2008 at Shoreline Amphitheater, One Amphitheater Parkway, Mountain View Ca. at 12 noon. Donations in Dr. Gay's honor may be made to: Rock Medicine, P.O. Box 756, Roseville, Ca. 95661-9998.
http://www.legacy.com/SacBee/DeathNotice...=104716076
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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#2
It was beautiful - many old friends came out of the woodwork, some who I hadn't seen in a decade or more. Penny asked me to give the opening invocation/prayer. I was pretty intimidated given the roster of speakers to follow me - Rock Med directors, the former BGP VP, the founder of HAFC, many people I respect the hell out of. Plus it's not like I'm really any sort of spiritual leader. Come on, you guys know me. WTF? I think Rock Med looked to me because I have a closet full of robes. Good thing they don't know what else is in my closet. As I was driving there, the memorial was announced on KFOG. That freaked me out a bit. But I robed up, gave it my best, after all, I could do no less for Skip. He was truly one of the great lights I had the honor of knowing, one of my wisest teachers, and I'm very proud to have been his friend.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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