Godwin will retire after 43 years of doctoring
SALEM – After more than 43 years of doctoring the common cold, infections of all types and life-threatening conditions, Dr. Gene Godwin is putting away his stethoscope.
But he doesn’t plan to pack up his rollerblades.
The popular family doctor at Carilion Clinic West Main office in Salem plans to retire March 31. He’s known for his rollerblading hobby, which he intends to continue at Wasena Park in Roanoke, he said.
Dr. Gene Godwin, right, talks over old times with Dr. Dick Williams of the Carilion Clinic Spartan Drive office, who started out in private practice with him in 1968. With them is Dr. Deana Young who also practices at Carilion's West Main Clinic in Salem. Photo by Meg Hibbert
One thing that’s certain is Godwin’s hundreds of current patients and those he’s treated in the past will miss him.
“He is loved by his patients,” said Dr. Dick Williams, who started out in private practice with Godwin in 1968 and is now at Carilion’s Spartan Drive clinic. “He will be missed very much.”
Many of the patients at the Salem family practice started out with him and aren’t happy he is leaving them. “Our patients have grown old with us,” admitted Godwin, who signed on with Carilion in 1993 when the Salem clinic was located at 211 College Ave.
There are so many patients who want to say goodbye to Godwin that the clinic staff is planning an open house in his honor on Saturday, March 26, from 2-4 p.m. at the office at 2102 W. Main Street.
Williams credits Godwin – who is reluctant to talk much about himself – with inspiring his own future career. “Gene was doing an internship at Roanoke Memorial Hospital in 1965-66. He had a flat top then. I was in the the Air Force and didn’t know what I wanted to do. I was so inspired by his knowledge, I decided to go into family practice.”
Dr. Gene Godwin served in Vietnam for 11 months. Family photo
Godwin completed his internship and went on to Vietnam with the United States Army for 11 months.
He was a battalion surgeon for six months, then assigned to a land-clearing company for the next five.
Photographs from family albums picked out by his wife. Dorothy, who is known to family and friends as “Dotsy,” show a flat-topped Dr. Godwin in Army drab leaning against a Jeep in Vietnam, and treating a soldier in the field.
Other black-and-white pictures show him treating Vietnamese children. Someone penned on the back of one, “Great white healer.”
Along the way, Godwin was awarded the combat medical badge and bronze star.
Dr. Godwin treats an injured soldier while he served with a land-clearing company in Vietnam. Family photo
After he finished up his military service with a year at Fort Benning, Ga., Godwin and Williams started private practice., along with Dr. W.G. Eddins.
Godwin was also involved in the teaching program at Roanoke Memorial before he and Williams became Carilion clinic employees.
In the early years, Godwin and Williams, like most doctors, kept office hours and made house calls, too.
On Wednesdays, they rotated providing coverage for all the doctors in Salem, the two recalled, and would make 10 to 12 house calls per day.
“A patient brought me a bill the other day for a house call and a shot of penicillin. The total was $7,” Godwin said.
His plans after he retires from the clinic are to rollerblade, work out on the treadmill and walk a couple of miles at a time at Green Ridge Recreation Center, “and swim a few laps.” He doesn’t play golf.
The Jefferson High School graduate met his future bride met while he was at Roanoke College earning a degree in biology with a minor in chemistry. “Someone in Salem introduced us,” he remembered.
Godwin went on to the Medical College of Virginia. He’s been board certified by the American Board of Family Practice from 1973 through 2010.
He and Dotsy have two daughters and sons-in-law. They are Dawn and Eric Leonard of Asheville, N.C., and Leanne and Peter Hall of Pittsburgh, parents of granddaughter Anne Hayden Hall, who is 5.
The Godwins share their home in Windsor Hills with Oliver, a Shibu imu-French bulldog mix, and an elderly Siamese named Phoebe.
