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calvertawardOREGON’S DOCTOR OF THE YEAR: JIM CALVERT, M.D.
 
‘He listens to us’
 
Klamath Falls physician, founder of residency program, also works with teen moms and HIV-positive patients

 

The Oregon Academy of Family Physicians makes sure its annual award is a surprise.

 

At a banquet last month, Oregon Health and Science University President Dr. John Sautlz began describing the recipient: He practices in Klamath Falls. He works with HIV patients and cares for young mothers at a rural clinic. He founded Cascades East, a family medicine residency program in Klamath Falls.

 

All signs pointed to an   unexpecting Dr. Jim Calvert.

 

“His eyes got bigger and bigger,” said Dr. Joyce Hollander Rodriguez, who has an office across the hall from Calvert at Cascades East Family Practice Clinic. “I’ve never seen him look more stunned. He was practically speechless, which is rare for him.”

 

Calvert, 65, had seen friends and colleagues take home the award previous years. It usually goes to a private practice doctor who runs a rural clinic, he said, not a professor at a family practice residency program.       

 

“It was a wonderful feeling,” Calvert said. “I really respect the group of people who (nominated me) so it was a pretty big deal.”

 

Calvert’s colleagues, patients and resident physicians wrote letters to the academy nominating him for the award. One HIVpositive patient said in her letter that she knows she   wouldn’t be alive without him.

 

His five grown children were there to see him receive the award. They had secretly attended the ceremony and waited offstage to congratulate him.

 

“It was a total surprise,” he said.