In Memoriam

Raphael F. Turgeon '49
Resourceful and generous, he was a home town doctor

Bookmark and Share

Raphael "Ralph" Turgeon '49, who died in October from complications arising from pneumonia, spent his 30-year career as a general practitioner in Westbrook, Maine. A true community doctor, he was both a passionate professional and a kind man—he provided wide-ranging medical care to a variety of people, many of whom couldn't always afford to pay him.

He was born in Dover, N.H., to a large, loving, French-Canadian family; his dad was a millworker and his mother, a homemaker. The 16th of 17 children, Turgeon was raised by his brothers and sisters and learned to be resilient, competitive, generous and resourceful. Family was the backbone of his existence, but he learned the value of independence at a young age. He later taught his own sons that caring for people and succeeding in life can go hand in hand.

A bright, sensitive boy with a gift for languages, Turgeon attended parochial school. His family and teachers felt he was destined for the priesthood, and he spent several years in a seminary in Quebec, Canada. He enlisted in the U.S. Navy in the early 1940s and served for two years as an orderly at the Bethesda Naval Hospital. He discovered that he loved medical work, and that consequently, the priesthood wasn't for him.

"My dad felt that your work reflected your purpose in life, and that it was a calling from God," his son Daniel '73 says. "Becoming a doctor was a natural transition for him—if you can't take care of people's souls, then you take care of their bodies." When he came home after the war, his brothers and sisters helped him pay for his pre-med program at UNH.

He married Pauline Ouellette, his best friend's sister, in 1949; they raised five sons, including Allan '77 and Rene '76. Turgeon received his medical degree from the University of Laval Medical School in Quebec and did a two-year surgical residency at Providence Hospital in Detroit.

"My father used to see 60 patients a day, and he did everything, from treating earaches to performing appendectomies to delivering 200 babies a year," says Daniel. He was the doctor for the mills and took care of city employees. He recorded patient information on 3- by 5-inch cards. He also made house calls.

An office visit cost $5, but his patients often bartered--they mowed his lawn, did his landscaping and gave him pets. "If I get another guinea pig, I'm leaving," Pauline Turgeon once said. "My dad knew his patients and knew who could afford to pay," Daniel says. "He would never embarrass anyone by refusing what they could offer him in exchange for medical care."

Turgeon loved sports and was very fit--he played handball, tennis, golf, swam, skied and fished. In 1965, he was the state-appointed, ringside physician for fights and wrestling matches when Sonny Liston fought Cassius Clay for the heavyweight championship in Lewiston, Maine. He examined Liston the day before the fight, and the photo of that examination made national news. Newspapers reported that Turgeon said that Liston was "the fittest man I've ever examined." Turgeon maintained that he was misquoted and that he had, in fact, said, "Mr. Liston is fit to fight," a subtle distinction that gained resonance when Liston was knocked out in the 16th second of the first round.


Return to In Memoriam

blog comments powered by Disqus