I was
fortunate to be in the top ten percent of the Senior Class at
MHS. I graduated cum laude with a B.A. in chemistry from David
Lipscomb College in 1971 and received an M.D. degree in 1974
from the University of TN Health Science Center in Memphis,
where I was a C.M. Gooch Scholar. After an internship in 1975 at
the City of Memphis Hospitals, I did two years of an OB/GYN
residency in Knoxville (1976-78), then changed to a pathology
residency at UT in Memphis (1978-80) and the University of
Alabama Medical Center in Birmingham (1980-82).
With this training, I entered private practice
pathology at Reference Pathology Laboratory in Nashville from
1982 to 1985. During this time, I was also a pathologist at
University Medical Center in Lebanon, TN, Allied Clinical Labs
in Chattanooga, and Bolivar Co. Hospital in Cleveland, MS.
In 1986, I became board certified in Anatomic and
Clinical Pathology from the American Board of Pathology and then
became Medical Director for Roche Biomedical Labs in Monroe, LA,
from 1986 to 1989.
I took a fellowship in Hematopathology at Loyola
University of Chicago (1989-90) which led to Special
Qualification in Hematology from the American Board of
Pathology, after which I returned to Reference Pathology Labs in
Nashville from 1990 until my retirement in 1995.
After retiring from medicine, I became an author with
McFarland Publishers. I currently have two books in print: "The
Christmas Encyclopedia" (two editions, 2001 and 2006, with a
third edition scheduled for publication in 2013) and
"Encyclopedia of New Year's Holidays Worldwide" (2008), both of
which are available at Amazon.com. I currently spend time
researching new material for the forthcoming third edition.