Page 90 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2021- Online Magazine

Dr. Patrick Pappas
orn and raised in
Dallas, Texas during
Bthe Depression, Patrick
Pappas, the youngest son of
a candy maker, describes his
childhood as happy. His father
was an immigrant from Greece
who owned a candy store.
Pat’s avid interest in history and
a desire to know more about
the origin and development of
the world and the people in it
has its beginnings in elementary
school, after reading The Story of
Mankind by Hendrik Wilem van
Loon. During junior high, Pat
was introduced to the beauty of
poetry and the wisdom in essays.
He often had to memorize lines
of poetry for school assignments;
he actually enjoyed and excelled
at this. Also during this time,
he developed an interest in
writing, after reading the works
of Ralph Waldo Emerson. He was
inspired to write a play about a
boy having a birthday party after
reading How to Win Friends and
90 Lubbock Senior Link
Searching for Meaning
by Gloria Paraskeva and Mary Pappas
Influence People by Dale Carnegie.
While in high school, he would
sometimes skip school to focus
on reading philosophy, poetry,
and history.
Pat enrolled in North Texas
Agricultural College in
Arlington, a branch of A&M, now
University of Texas Arlington,
in Sept. 1946, and finished his
pre-med requirements in 1948 at
SMU. He attended the University
of Texas Medical Branch at
Galveston, where he graduated
in 1952. During his third year
in medical school, Pat joined
the medical ROTC. In 1953, he
joined the Air Force Reserve. He
did his basic training at Maxwell
Air Force Base in Montgomery,
Alabama in the summer of
1953. Five weeks later, he went
to Randolph Air Force Base in
San Antonio for flight surgery
training. In October 1953, he was
stationed at Elmendorf Air Force
Base in Anchorage, Alaska. While
there, he was assigned a staff
job, so he did not get to practice
medicine very much. He flew
on a few memorable missions;
one was to rescue survivors of a
C-47 that had crashed near Mt.
McKinley. Another mission was
to treat residents of a fishing
village off the Alaska Peninsula
during a measles outbreak.
Having attained the rank of
Captain, Pat left Alaska and the
Air Force.
Pat went back to UT Medical
Branch, Galveston and finished
his residency in internal
medicine. With his residency
complete, he joined a clinic in
Jacksonville, Texas. A year later,
in 1959, Pat joined Dr. Mattison
and Dr. Ryburn in Lubbock. He
witnessed and participated in
many medical advancements
in Lubbock in all his years of
practice. He retired from his
career in medicine in 2005.
In 1961, Pat’s father was driving
from Dallas to Lubbock to ask
Pat to go with him back to
Greece. His father was involved
in an auto accident, leaving
him paralyzed and unable to
travel. Pat regrets that he was
unable to take his father on this
trip. Around 1970, after talking
with his mother, Pat became
interested in genealogy. In
1975, he married Christine, and
together they traveled to Greece
to learn more about his father’s
side of the family. While visiting
his father’s village and childhood
residence, he established contact
with his cousins. Pat spent time
researching his genealogy and