Sam A. Nixon, M.D., First Recipient of the TAFP Lifetime Achievement Award

A collection of letters in tribute to Dr. Nixon from friends and family

At this year’s Annual Session, the academy presented the first ever TAFP Lifetime Achievement Award to one of its most respected leaders, Sam A. Nixon, M.D., of Nixon, Texas. A past president of both TAFP and AAFP, Nixon’s accomplishments, leadership skills and commitment to organized medicine are unmatched. He championed rural health, departments of family practice, organized medicine and was instrumental in establishing a medical school dedicated to primary care. Unfortunately, Dr. Nixon was ill and unable to attend the ceremony. TAFP Executive Director Jim White delivered the award to Dr. Nixon a few weeks after the conference.

Following medical school, Nixon served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in Korea, Japan and Texas. He cared for patients in Floresville and Nixon, Texas, for 23 years before moving to Houston to become professor in the department of family practice and community medicine at University of Texas at Houston. He was involved in medicine education for nearly 20 years before retiring. Nixon has served as president of TAFP from 1968 to 1969, was the American Academy of Family Physicians president in 1980, the Texas Medical Association president from 1991 to 1992, the Harris and Gonzales County Medical Society president and president of the TAFP Foundation from 1999 to 2001. Nixon was a consultant to the Centers for Disease Control and was a member of the CDC’s venereal disease advisory committee. He was also a member of the Board of Regents of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences. Among his many honors, he was named Ashbel Smith Distinguished Alumnus from the University of Texas Medical Branch in 1982, received the American Medical Association’s Award for Health Education in 1991 and the TMA Distinguished Service Award in 1999. What follows is a collection of letters from family, friends and colleagues in tribute to Dr. Nixon.

Sam Nixon, friend and mentor
JIM WHITE, TAFP EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

TAFP is indeed fortunate to have and to have had many long-term leaders. Leaders who have individually and collectively contributed greatly to their specialty and profession, but Dr. Sam Nixon stands tall among the great. His outstanding accomplishments span his state and national academy and his state and national medical association. He has championed rural health, departments of family practice, organized medicine and was instrumental in establishing a uniformed services medical school dedicated to primary care.

Nixon has been president of so many things: his local chapter, his county medical society, the TAFP, the AAFP and the TMA. His leadership skill is exemplary, yet he has always made time to share his experiences and wisdom. He is special in that he can be your mentor and be your friend. Through all his accomplishments and acclaim, Nixon has remained a humble servant to his family, his fellow man and his colleagues.

His political vision is legendary in TAFP. While in private practice in Floresville, Texas, he crafted a political plan that launched him on an incredibly successful series of leadership positions for family practice and organized medicine. I will leave the details to others, but even the process that led to his successes up to and including president of the AAFP have been studied and replicated. To me what is more fascinating is how he was willing to share his strategies with others.

Even with thick glasses and hearing aids, Nixon was blessed with great vision and the gift of being able to listen. Sam Nixon has been my teacher and mentor. Using his wealth of institutional knowledge, he often called to give me “guidance” to keep me out of the doghouse. For example, when we were first considering names for what is now PrimeCME®, I suggested “Focused CME.”

Sam called and said, “Jim, it looks like you have the making of a good program, but maybe you should think about the name more. The AMA uses the term to mean remedial training and this might affect your marketing efforts.” PrimeCME has become a very important part of the TAFP education program and I often wonder if we would have realized the same success with “Focused CME.”

I could always count on his editing skills. When he reviewed a report, he did so with an eye for details and for the meaning and impact of the report. Did the report clearly and accurately convey the issues? Did the recommendations suggest policy that was appropriate and realistic? If not, he would help you make it right. Many can do this but the way he conveyed the shortcomings of a report was special to me. When he was through, I felt inspired not criticized. I would know any errors he found and he would help me understand the big picture.

I, too, have a bit of institutional memory and I witnessed firsthand his mentoring of many up-and-coming TAFP leaders. And there have been many other leaders whose stories of how Dr. Nixon gave them help and encouragement I’ve only learned after they were in the leadership ranks. I have heard only praises and statements of amazement of how he accomplished so much, yet always had time to help so many.

When I think of Dr. Sam Nixon, I usually think of both Nixon and his lifetime love, Elizabeth. Dr. Nixon is truly one of the greats in family practice and all of medicine, but he would be the first to acknowledge he could not have done it without Elizabeth. Sam and Elizabeth Nixon have meant much to me and have contributed greatly to the enjoyment I have had being part of the great specialty of family practice.
 

A family physician’s family physician
GLEN R. JOHNSON, M.D.

“Young man,” he said, “we would like to see you more involved in our academy, and let me know if there is anything I could do to assist.”

These or similar words were my welcome to the Texas Academy of Family Physicians by Sam at my first TAFP Annual Session in 1976. Sam had taken the time to excuse himself from the company of his fellow TAFP members to reach out to a young stranger to the TAFP, one of very few minority and more so African-American members present at the meeting. After all, he was already a bigwig at the AAFP and was soon to be speaker of the AAFP Congress of Delegates. I remember the firm genuine handshake and the sincerity exemplified in his welcome greeting. Little did I realize at that time the influence that this “gentle man” would have on my career as a family physician.

As speaker of the AAFP Congress of Delegates from 1976 through 1979, Sam conducted affairs in his characteristic suave but authoritative manner, never failing in Sam-fashion to interject into the seriousness of the debate adequate comic relief to settle the restless natives. It was during this time that I observed his willingness to challenge the status quo. It was during this time that I remember him officially challenging our academy to be more inclusive and to reach out to students, young family physicians and particularly to the few minority family physicians to attend our annual meeting.

It was no surprise, therefore, that at his inauguration as president-elect of the AAFP in New Orleans, with his encouragement I was nominated to the first Committee on Minority Health Affairs of the AAFP. This officially launched my 23-year career in organized medicine. Elizabeth Nixon was there too, encouraging my family and particularly my wife, Daphne, to hang in there. Thanks to the support, mentoring and encouragement of Sam and Elizabeth, in 1986 I was elected president of the TAFP, the first and only African-American to hold this distinguished office. Then in 1991, upon nomination by the TAFP, I was elected to the board of directors of the AAFP for a three-year term, again the first African-American elected to the AAFP Board of Directors. In 1994, I was elected vice president of the AAFP, this time the first African-American to hold an officer’s position in the AAFP.

Thank you Sam and God bless!

 

 

 

Memories of a schoolmate
HAROLD T. PRUESSNER, M.D.

Before there was a TAFP, there was a physician known as Sam Nixon. Sam and I were in the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, the first medical school established by the University of Texas. Sam and I, Harold Pruessner (a.k.a. “Big Slim”), frequently traveled to class through a torrent of rain in knee-deep water. Of personal interest, my father Arthur John Henry Dietrich Pruessner lived in Galveston during the most devastating storm in history in 1900.

Human anatomy, as taught by professor Blount, was probably the best and most thorough anatomy class in the country. It started out our career in medicine and we attended classes from 8 a.m. to noon or later. These classes were Monday to Saturday, fulltime classes with Blount and one or two assistants. It was a trial by fire, and if you did not make it through anatomy, one would probably not make it through medical school. We would study almost every Saturday and frequently on Sunday.

The biggest event during our time at medical school was the Texas City disaster on April 16, 1947, when a cargo ship loaded with ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded in the harbor, setting of a chain of terrible events. This impacted the whole student body and the entire school. The dean of the school discharged all patients that could be dismissed in preparation for the number of casualties. All of the students were recruited to help. That included Sam and most of the students in their junior and senior years.

Our group of four students were on the third floor of the pediatric ward when the building shook from the explosion and then we heard the explosion in Texas City. One in our group had a car, so like young kids, we took off to Texas City and beat the police there. After wandering close to the flames and ships we decided to leave the disaster. Sam was with his own group. Most all of the junior and senior students helped care for the many injured. The faculty from the medical school and military physicians from Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio provided most of the care to patients. Ron Stone wrote a book on this event.

After we graduated, I went to the residency program at Philadelphia General Hospital. I do not remember where Sam spent his internship, but I do remember that he returned to Nixon, Texas, and went into general practice there for a number of years. He married Elizabeth. I married Alma Lucille Morgan and went into practice in Corpus Christi after a tour of duty in the U.S. Navy during the Korean War.

After the AAFP established Certification for Practice of Family Medicine by examination to be able to practice in medical schools, both Sam and I ended up in Houston.

Sam has always been a very creative activist for family medicine. If I remember correctly, he served as president of his local, state and national academies of family physicians. He was also very active in all levels of our medical associations. A natural leader, Sam teamed up with C. Frank Webber, M.D., in Houston and accomplished much for family medicine. Sam worked diligently to support the establishment of the TAFP and AAFP. Nancy Dickey was a student at University of Texas Medical Branch-Houston and Sam helped her at the AMA. She is now president of the Health Science Center and Texas Agriculture and Mining University.

It has been my pleasure to know and work with Sam and Elizabeth Nixon and their daughters. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in this tribute to Sam Nixon on the occasion of his receiving this well-deserved award.

 
Growing up with a rural family physician
DR. NIXON’S DAUGHTERS: ALICE NIXON, BETSY CARRELL, JANO NIXON, DOROTHY ROBINSON

Growing up with a rural family doctor as a father led to a lot of interesting family experiences. We got to sit on the back pew in church because it was closest to the telephone. And everyone knew that if the phone rang in church it would be for Daddy. We were disappointed when plans had to be cancelled or when Daddy could not make it to a school program.

We are still very proud to have someone tell us what a good doctor our father was when he practiced medicine in Nixon and Floresville. We girls are blessed by the good examples of both of our parents.

During various growing seasons, farmers would bring fresh produce for the good doctor and his family. This produce was often left early in the morning where we would find it. We thought that we had a garage that produced watermelons, tomatoes and corn by magic.

One Easter Saturday, Daddy came home from the office at lunch with a box of colored baby chicks. A patient had brought them to him for “his little girls at Easter.” We were delighted to have these pink, green, blue and yellow chicks, but Mama was a bit dismayed over what to do with them. We girls played with the chicks over Easter and on Monday morning, the chicks found a new home with a friend who raised chickens.

Daddy was the football team doctor for the Floresville High School Tigers. We enjoyed seeing him standing by the team bench watching the Tigers play. He was such a big fan of the team that the doctor bag he carried with him sported a tiger tail at all football games.

Often on Sunday evenings, we would plan to go to San Antonio to visit with friends. Arrangements had been made, everyone had changed clothes and we were all in the car buckling our seat belts when we would hear the telephone ring. Daddy would go back in the house to answer the telephone. He would come back out to tell us that the outing was cancelled because of a medical call.

When young men came to call for us on Friday and Saturday nights, there was always the fear that Daddy would be working on one of his educational slide shows on sexually transmitted diseases . In fact, Daddy showed a film on STDs to a future son-in-law on their very first meeting.

Again, all four of us are blessed to have been raised in a Texas rural family doctor’s home. And on a final note, we have to say that Daddy and his girls would not be where they are without the grace, patience and wisdom of Elizabeth, our Mama.