End of an era: Dr. Carr retires

Dec. 2—A long-lasting medical era has come to a close in Sampson as another of the county's pioneering doctors, William "Bill" Carr, finally hung up his lab coat for retirement.

"I guess I have mixed emotions about retiring," Carr said about making the decision to call it a career after more than three decades with Clinton Medical Clinic. "As for my reason for choosing now, basically, my wife and children have shared me with the medical profession for many, many years for lots of long hours and me not always being around as much. That said, it's time for them to have all my time, especially my wife who has supported me all these years."

"So, I'm looking forward to spending time with my family and my grandchildren," he added. "I'll miss the kids and the moms and dads and working at a medical clinic, because we have such a great staff there — the place where I've worked for over 35 years, but, it's time to move on to different things, and especially just for more family time."

A board-certified pediatrician, Carr graduated from Duke University School of Medicine in Durham and completed his residency in pediatrics at Children's Hospital at Washington University Medical Center in St. Louis, Mo.

He's also a homegrown talent, growing up in Clinton and, after finishing his schooling and residency, he chose to return to his hometown to practice. That was in 1988, and he's been here ever since, even living in the house where he was raised.

Coming back to Sampson to spend his career is a decision he said he would still make, sharing that sentiment when reflecting over his long tenure at Clinton Medical Clinic.

"It's a wonderful job, being a pediatrician, working with Dr. Herring, for so many years, and then the rest of the people at the medical clinic, it's been a real blessing," he said. "I can't think of a better job or anything that I would rather do. If I had to go back, I wouldn't change a bit of it."

"I know I trained in a large university hospital, I went to Duke and then to St. Louis Children's," he continued. "They had all the resources and all the specialists, which was comforting to have that available, it was really nice. When I came back, Dr. Mac was there and he was like having the whole staff right there at my disposal."

Carr then shared another heartwarming story about why he stayed here for his entire career, one that made him laugh as being here initially was meant to be a one-year trial — one that turned into 30 years.

"I grew up in Clinton and when me and my wife Nancy moved back she was a Navy brat and her dad was in the Navy so they moved around all the time," he said. So when we came back to Clinton, she said, 'one year, we'll give it one year and no long-term contracts, we'll just have to kind of see how it goes.'"

"I guess it must have gone pretty well, because it's been about 36 years," he said with a laugh. "Clinton's always been a great place, it was a great place to grow up, it was a great place to raise children and work; it's just a great town."

In his more than three decades of practice, Carr has grown to become a beloved doctor to many patients in Sampson County. It wasn't just to them, however, as his peers who worked closely with him throughout the years attested that he is just as vital and loved among his colleagues.

"I was fortunate enough to work with him for 26 of those years, until I retired," Dr. Mac Herring said. "He was absolutely the best pediatric partner anyone could ever wish for."

"It's quite unusual, but us two hometown boys came back to practice pediatrics here, we both grew up in Clinton," he said. "We practiced pediatrics the same way even though our training was more than 15 years apart. Dr. Carr was able to learn as a lot of ordinary pediatrics from me and I was able to learn a lot of the more sophisticated newer pediatrics from him, particularly neonatal care."

In talking about his former partner, Herring recalled what it was like to work alongside Carr each day, their many hours of patient conversations around the office remaining something he misses to this day.

"We had each other's back every day and we talked every day about difficult or unusual patients," he said. "So our patients often had the benefit of a second opinion without having to do go somewhere else or pay extra for it. That was one of the things I missed most when I retired, was my daily conversations with Dr. Carr. Back in the day, we did we all the hospital care, newborn care, emergency care as well as the office care.

"If we had a particular problem develop with a patient, a difficult problem, it was not unusual for both of us to just drop and run out of the office to the hospital and help each other out with that patient," he continued. "We could count on each other to cover each other, say if one of us got sick or had something come up we just had to do. We would work out the schedule to cover for each other. He really was just absolutely the most fantastic partner one could ever wish for."

Dr. Ginger McCullen, who's currently a pediatrician at Clinton Medical Clinic, worked side-by-side with Carr for his entire time there, saying he served as a mentor to her and helped her become the doctor she is today.

"It's been fabulous to work with him and I've worked with him ever since he came here," she said. "First was at Sampson Regional and then the last 20 years here at the Clinton Medical Clinic. He's just like Dr. Herring and is an icon; he taught me a lot of what I know about pediatrics and I will miss him terribly. He was my go-to person when I had questions, after Dr. Herring retired especially."

When asked how she felt about her teacher and decades-long colleague retiring, she said it was a bittersweet feeling.

"Well, I don't blame him, I'm happy for him but I'm not happy for me," she said with a laugh. "That goes for those all of us who worked with him every day and depended on him every day — we're all sad, but he deserves retirement. He's worked really hard for a long time."

"His patients are certainly gonna miss him because he was very dedicated to his patients," McCullen added. "He was very caring of his patients and they're all going to miss him, I'm sure. We're all gonna miss him as a mentor, a consultant and a go-to person when we needed information and that kind of thing. I can't say that enough, but I don't blame him. I'm happy for him that he's able to retire."

Former head of the Clinton Medical Clinic, Bob Williams also worked closely with Carr for many years and spoke on his legacy. He touted the amazing work both he and Dr. Herring did over their years of practice and dedication to Sampson County.

"Bill is a very good pediatrician, he's clinically very competent and I guess what was sort of somewhat out of the ordinary, was that he wanted to come home," Williams said. "Raised in Clinton, his father being Dr. Henry Carr, he wanted to come back and practice medicine in Sampson County. So when he came back he joined Dr. Herring and they worked together for many, many years, or until Dr. Herring's retirement."

"For many of those years, they were the only two pediatricians in the county if I remember correctly," he continued. "They took care of many newborns delivered at the hospital and provided a full range of services to pediatrics from birth through, normally up to the age of 18 to 20, somewhere in that range."

The work and care they provided, Williams noted, was on par with that of any major hospital, something he said always impressed him, even to this day.

"They worked very hard, both of them, when there were limited pediatric practitioners in the county, so they saw a lot of patients," he said. "I guess one thing that impressed me over the years is that both Dr. Carr and Dr. Herring followed many complex pediatric patients, that had complex medical conditions, that probably previously, would be only followed at medical centers such as UNC or Duke. They, however, were able to provide those services to these patients locally and that was a benefit to those families."

"They saw these patients so much over the years and I know that was rewarding to them to continue to provide their services," he added. "I can't say enough on how good a pediatrician he is and I think he was well liked by his patients."

Williams echoed McCullen's sentiments in saying it was a well-deserved retirement.

"Now that he's retiring, I think he believes it's time and I think he's looking forward to retirement, doing some things with his wife and his in the community and also visiting his children who are married and have children of their own," said Williams.

Even his former peers that weren't even practitioners in the same medical field said they benefited and learned greatly from Carr. Words shared by another of his former and now retired colleagues from back in the day, Dr. Tommy Newton, painted a vivid picture of that sentiment.

"It was a pleasure to work with him for the many years that I did," Newton said. "I valued having him as a partner because he was very competent, is an excellent doctor and an excellent friend that helped me out in many occasions when I needed some pediatric expertise with my patients, since I'm a family physician. He was always willing to offer assistance, day or night, and I value that tremendously. He was those things both in and out of the office and those are probably the main takeaways for me about him. He still remains a good friend to this day, and that's something I do and will always value."

Now that his longtime partner is finally deciding to call in his retirement, Herring said the moment was bittersweet. While he's happy that his friend is retiring he also felt a little melancholy as it means that another era in medical care is reaching its conclusion.

"We were both very fortunate to work with an excellent group of family practitioners who provided us with coverage when we just were not available and also afforded us time off," he said. "So, our group at Clinton Medical Clinic was probably the only group in the state where family practitioners and pediatricians worked together, seeing the same patients, not as as a separate part of a group."

"I hate to see the era leave, but I think we both feel that we're leaving pediatrics in good hands with Dr. Sundlie, Dr. Horton and all our extenders, particularly Ginger McCullen, who worked with Dr. Carr so long that patients say she's just like him."

Carr's last day on the job was on Tuesday, Nov. 21, the week of Thanksgiving.

He said it's a day he'll never forget as it was not only the date of his retirement, but also his daughter birthday. As for what the future holds for the good doctor, he said his plans are open, but travel is definitely in the cards.

"Me and my wife, we're going to travel some and we're definitely going to spend more time with our grandchildren," he said. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do now besides that, but I am going to kind of decompress for a month or so, then look at things and see what's out there in our next chapter. For now, I'm wide open right at this point."

"Other than that I'll just say again that everybody I've worked with have been great people," said Carr, "and I appreciate all they've done for me and my family."

Reach Michael B. Hardison at 910-249-4231. Follow us on Twitter at @SamsponInd, like us on Facebook, and check out our Instagram at @thesampsonindependent.