Alfred J. Stojowski, MD

Can a 34 year old native of New York City, with its world-class culture, find happiness in a small western town?

Al Stojowski was born in 1919 in New York City, where he lived through his school years, receiving a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University in 1941, on the eve of World War II.

Continuing at Columbia for medical school, Al met Alice Malloy while he attended the College of Physicians and Surgeons, receiving his M.D. in 1944. Upon graduating, he joined the military and he and Alice were soon married. One week later he was on his way to the South Pacific.

Serving several Army units as their Medical Officer, Al would be driven through the jungle between encampments. This biography would end now if, on one of those trips, Captain Stojowski had not leaned back to retrieve something in the rear of the command car -- as a sniper's bullet crashed through the windshield.

The military years were followed by a medical residency in Surgery and Thoracic Surgery at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. After graduating in 1953, came the long awaited opportunity to move to Wenatchee, with their children, Peter and Pamela. Shortly after arrival their youngest, Alfred J. Jr. (now know as Jordy) was born.

Quickly assimilating into the life of Wenatchee, Alice joined the Wenatchee Junior Hospital Guild and Al became involved in many community and civic activities. One of the first was helping organize the Little League youth baseball association. For several years he coached the Fruit Growers Service Little League team.

Wanting to serve his adopted home town, Al joined the Chamber of Commerce, becoming the first physician on the Chamber Board and the first to serve as Chamber President.
Chancellor of the Applarians booster group followed, in the early 1960s.

In the late 1950s a group of seven community activists formed the Community Savings and Loan Association and Al served as Chairman of the Board for about 20 years, until it was bought out by a much larger bank.

Invited to participate as a member of the Advisory Committee to the Mayor of Wenatchee, Al served as chair of that group until it was dissolved by the then Mayor Jim Lynch. Other community and state activities in Al's resume' of service include:

• helping to organize and serving as the first president of the Wenatchee Valley Symphony Board, continuing that association for 40 years.
  being on the Apple Blossom Festival Board for many years.
• being on the Literacy Board for several years.
• activities in Music Theater of Wenatchee as performer, director and Board President, with singing leads in several productions, including "South Pacific."
• being appointed to the Washington State Arts Commission by Governor Rosellini, in the early 1960s.
• being reappointed, by Governor Evans, to three additional four-year terms on the State Arts Commission, culminating in a two-year term as chairman.
  recently joining the board of Habitat for Humanity.

Al muses, "All of these board memberships led people to think I understood budgets and running multiple meetings, so they made me president of the Board of the Wenatchee Golf and Country Club. As it turned out, expertise at golf turned out to not be necessary, either."

Al joined Wenatchee Rotary in 1961, was club President in 1967-68 and is a Paul Harris Fellow. In 1988-89 he was elected Governor of District 506, now renumbered 5060. He and Alice attended Rotary International conventions in Munich, Philadelphia, Las Vegas, Portland and Seoul.

Al continued, "I joined Wenatchee Rotary 40 years ago, in 1961, and continue to enjoy the membership. I like to think that neither Rotary nor other extracurricular activities conflicted seriously with my primary obligations to my family and to my surgical practice at the Wenatchee Valley Clinic."

In addition to his clinic duties as physician and surgeon, Dr. Al:

• was an instructor in Emergency Medical Training, developing a very friendly relationship with all of the local troopers of the Washington State Patrol.
• taught medical students and residents, through the clinic's affiliation with the Univ. of Wash. School of Medicine, as did several of the clinic doctors.
• He served as an Associate Clinical Professor with faculty status until retirement from active practice in 1987.

Commenting about the "Golden Years", a temporary setback in 1998 of open heart surgery and a five-way bypass caused Al to find that they are not always that golden -- that it may sometimes be a disappointing misnomer. But, he concludes, "I am grateful that the Lord has permitted me to enjoy reasonably good health and a continuingly functional brain."

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