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TI: So when you were starting a practice, was that a difficult time? Was it financially, just starting practice --

RE: I would imagine, yeah. You know, it was difficult because by 1963, it was difficult for an Asian American to find any kind of medical practice, health practices in small community. We decided to come to Oberlin, but fortunately, Oberlin composition was lot of liberal people. Oberlin happened to be one of the underground railroad, so to speak, from Civil War days. So we chose that to allow us to... but yeah, there were the banks, the banking and the lending institution was cruel to us. They said, "Well, we never had a non-white person practicing, and we're not sure that we can trust you to succeed." Those were the things, and I remember professors used to say, "Well, where the heck do you think you're gonna practice? Why don't you stay on, get your PhD and teach and do research?" Which I thought about, yeah. And I had all the goods going for me, I even was offered a position in University of Alabama, too. But I wanted to see what I could do in practice.

TI: And so how did the practice go?

RE: It was great. I mean, I had no problem, it just grew like I couldn't believe. I took on an associate three years after I started practice 'cause I overwhelmed with too much business, so to speak. But eventually, yeah, some years later, not too many years later, I hooked up with a, this ophthalmological group called the Lakeland Eye Surgeons, with seven surgeons, and I became the primary practitioner because I did residency at the VA Hospital in Cleveland.

<End Segment 29> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.