I just got word via the geezer grapevine that South Peninsula Hospital is going to dump Doc Sayer, an incredibly kind, decent and generous man, not to mention a fine surgeon. The new breed has probably decided he is too gruff and outspoken, i.e., honest, or maybe they don’t like his politics. Seems to me they should be giving him an appreciation award for his 40 years of service and humanitarianism and saving thousands of lives. Instead they want him gone.

Never mind that he played a huge part in creating South Peninsula Hospital. Never mind that before there even was an SPH, he used to fly his plane through snowstorms to keep his clinic appointments at the old Homer hospital, because he knew people were depending on him.

I was lucky enough to come to Alaska when a lot of the old timers — the real Alaskans — were still alive. They  had a saying about people, usually politicians, that they didn’t like. They would say, “that s.o.b. couldn’t carry a real man’s lunch bucket.” I feel very safe asserting that probably nobody on that hospital board could carry Paul Sayer’s lunch bucket. Hang in there, Doc. You have all kinds of friends around here.

John Custer