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Dr. Ward L. Oliver |
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Dr. Ward L. Oliver |
Ward L. Oliver, a beloved and venerable Cobleskill physician, centenarian and benefactor of the Cobleskill hospital and Schoharie County Historical Society, died at Bassett Hospital of Schoharie County on August 16, 2002.
Ward and his wife Virginia Loucks Oliver, who were collectively known as the Doctors Oliver, had an active medical practice from their Main Street, Cobleskill, offices until retirement in 1991.
Ward’s early education was received in the one-room Clam Hollow schoolhouse in the old Summit school district No. 3. Many of the Clam Hollow schoolhouse teachers stayed at the nearby Oliver home and in his later years, Dr. Oliver bought the schoolhouse and gave it to the Schoharie County Historical Society. It was moved to the Old Stone Fort Museum complex in 1984 and is one of the more popular exhibits.
Born June 23, 1902, in the town of Summit to George and Ida Warner Oliver, Ward lived his early life about midway between Summit and Charlotteville. George Oliver was Summit town supervisor and in 1918 was elected sheriff. Following the election the family moved to Schoharie and, as was custom at the time, resided in the courthouse. The living quarters were on the second floor and in 1921 Ward completed high school at Schoharie, where he was basketball team captain. Then, he worked his way through Middlebury College as a janitor in the chemistry building, on a road crew and by selling trees.
Following graduation from Middlebury, he taught at the Lutheranville one-room school for a year before enrolling in Albany Medical College, which graduated him in 1928. He completed an internship at Ellis hospital in Schenectady and, in 1929, Dr. Oliver returned to Schoharie County to start a medical career that would last more than 60 years. Later in life he would earn a master’s degree in public health from the University of Michigan.
Dr. Oliver served much of the rural area around Cobleskill and Summit, sometimes using chauffeurs to drive him up into the hill towns. In the early years, he delivered babies at patients’ homes and performed tonsillectomies in their kitchens. During the Depression, the fee for a house call ranged from $2.00 to $5.00, depending on distance, but many fees went uncollected. Some patients paid in sacks of potatoes or apples. During World War II he served in the United States Public Health Service in West Virginia’s coal region and taught classes at West Virginia University at Morgantown.
In 1946 Dr. Oliver returned to practice in Cobleskill. He met second-year medical student Virginia Loucks when she applied for employment in his office and they married in 1947. She joined him in medical practice in 1949.
Dr. Oliver was one of the physicians active in the founding and building of Community Hospital of Schoharie County, now Bassett Hospital of Schoharie County. He served on the Schoharie County Board of Health from 1948 to 1959 and was acting county health commissioner from 1949 to 1959. In 1959 he joined the state Department of Health and became chief of the disease detection section, a post he held until 1967 when he was appointed an assistant professor at the Albany Medical Center College. He retired from the college in 1974 and returned to private practice in Cobleskill.
Dr. Oliver was a director of the Bank of Richmondville and chairman of the board at the time of his death.. He served terms as a president of the Schoharie County Medical Society, president of the Cobleskill Board of Education and president of the Cobleskill Rotary club. He was a member and served as an officer of the Cobleskill United Methodist church, was a Mason and Shriner, and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution.
The Olivers have four daughters, a son and ten grandchildren.