Dr. Holmes

Respectfully and lovingly submitted by Karen Schimpf

Information from: Family history from Linda Schwilke and Salley Bull, Dixie Brown, Gazette Tribune, Trails and Tales, Okanogan County Heritage

I remember Doctor Stuart Holmes as a savior and a fine Doctor. He, along with Dr. Henze, saved my life in December of 1980. I also had worked with him in the Hospital and the Nursing Home. I appreciated how he listened to and spent time with patients, and he prayed with and for them. He was a gentleman and spent his life serving his community. He grew up here and practiced medicine in the North Okanogan County longer than any other doctor in this area.

Stuart William Holmes was born to Edward and May Holmes on November 18, 1914, in the Chewilikin Valley. The family came to the Whitestone area about 1918. He grew up on the family farm doing farm work, drove the family car at age 9, delivered produce to Tonasket by age 11, and at age 16 was driving a Model A Ford logging truck. As a child, he could not stand the sight of blood and fainted once when he got berry juice on himself and thought it was blood. He started grammar school in the Chewilikin and graduated from Tonasket HS in 1933 as his class's salutatorian. He got his Bachelor of Science degree in Seattle and his MD from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He supported himself in medical school on the commissions from selling catalogs, going door to door.

Edith Scott from Harrington WA and Stuart Holmes were married on August 18, 1940. He served during WWII in the Navy at the Naval Hospital in Seattle and as Medical Officer onboard the USS St Croix in the South Pacific. This ship dealt with massive amounts of amputations. Upon his return, he and Edith went to Spokane so he could take refresher classes at Deaconess. They set up their office and home in the upstairs apartments of the brick building across the street and north of the Camaray Motel, and 1949 moved into his office building at 610 Central in Oroville. Edith assisted him with his practice. They bought property on the Okanogan River in Oroville and built their house in 1960-61. Okanogan County residents needed a doctor like him after WWII.

He and Edith never had any children and wanted them. They cared for many, and he delivered about 1300 plus babies. They treated the late Ginger Cody Miller as a daughter, and she took care of them as they aged, especially Edith.

Of interest: Stuart Holmes owned a motorcycle with a sidecar which his family stated he would ride in circles with a family passenger on the ice on Lake Osoyoos. He and Edith rode it to Montreal when he was in school there. The Jensen 21 "Silver Beetle" helicopter prototype was developed at his brother Clay Holmes' ranch(now the Williams' ranch) outside Loomis. Test flights were conducted from the Kirsch Airport somewhere over Tonasket, and Stuart Holmes flew as a passenger once. He recalled that the helicopter was very maneuverable in all directions but had "an intense vibration with fast forward motion."

In addition to taking care of his community medically, he and Edith filled their lives by helping people. This included helping young people with their education expenses, including Dr. Lamb, who did pay them back. He taught teenage Sunday School at the Free Methodist Church in Oroville. They paid for the present building's plans and most of its construction and loaned money to members so they could buy orchards or homes. Edith accompanied him on her flute as he sang. At Church, he sang solos and In The Garden was his favorite hymn. Some of his Sunday School students learned how to fly from him and became professional pilots. Many of us remember his Mouse Ran Up the Pants performances and he was a great storyteller. Our mountains and streams were their favorite vacation sites. In 1981 Edith and was given the Citizen of the Year award by the Oroville Chamber of Commerce.

Of note is that Dr. Holmes owned four planes and flew them on medical missions to Spokane and Seattle. Once, he flew his niece from Everett to Oroville so she could deliver her daughter in their home. He also flew himself and medical supplies to Central and South America. In 1981 he spent a month teaching surgery to native missionary doctors in Central India.

Dr. Holmes practiced medicine in Oroville, Tonasket, Republic, and outlying areas. He handled emergencies in his office and used his Jeep, Model A, and airplane to bring care to his patients. For years he took call at North Valley Hospital, consulted when needed, followed his patients in the Hospital and the Nursing Home, made thousands of house calls and phone calls, and was a skilled surgeon. I remember that he would come into a patient's room and sit down next to them, and look at him or her and talk for as long as he was needed, no standing with a chart and looking down. There was a bed down the hall on the Hospital's second floor to use if he thought he should stay nearby for a patient.

The Hospital did not require liability insurance until it became a Public Hospital District. For a while, he was covered by the Hospital until Parkinson's affected his ability to do surgery. He and other GP's and surgeons of his era depended on their skills, their word, and their faith as their guarantee for many years.

Dr. Holmes retired soon after Dr. Lamb began his practice, after 38 years of caring for the North Okanogan Community. In the late 80's he was admitted to our Nursing Home with Parkinson's Disease. Some of us who worked with him completed our time with him by taking care of him. He was as gracious as a patient as he was as a doctor. The walls of his room had pictures of many of the babies he ushered into the world on it, a testimony to a wonderful man. He passed on September 12, 1993, in our Nursing Home.