CATEGORY: Event TYPE: News Article DESCRIPTION: Telegram & Gazette. Worcester, Mass.: Aug 27, 2001. pg. A.1 DATE: 27 Aug 2001 NOTE: Author(s): John Dignam
Dateline: OXFORD
Section: NEWS
Copyright Telegram & Gazette Corporation Aug 27, 2001
OXFORD -- The music playing in the background at the high school reunion was not the music of their high school years -- after all, Glenn Miller's orchestra came along well after the class of 1931 received its diplomas.
But that was of no concern as a dozen graduates of Bartlett High School of Webster held their 70th reunion Friday. The melody of conversation was their music.
"Hear that?" Dr. Walter R. Schur asked, his head tilted toward the hum of talk on the back porch.
"Lots of conversation. Lots of hugging and embracing, which I particularly like," he said. "We enjoy seeing each other." The reunion was held at Dr. Schur's large Victorian house on Charlton Street, as it has been each year for the past four years.
The classmates had met faithfully every five years since their graduation, but after their 65th reunion they decided to gather annually.
"In anticipation of our demise, we wanted to meet before we all left this earthly sphere," Dr. Schur said with a smile.
"I'm staying," Mary (Szostakowski) Cloutier said. She said she keeps busy "and it keeps me young."
"A pilot," Dr. Schur says of Mrs. Cloutier.
"If you see the world from 2,100 feet, you just don't want to come down," said Mrs. Cloutier, who took lessons at a flight school in North Smithfield, R.I., where she worked. She flew for 21 years, including flying to Florida and back.
The class attended high school at the height of the Depression, when jobs were scarce and money scarcer, the graduates said.
"It was a different world," Dr. Schur said. "We talk about the good old times, but I think we remember just the good things." After graduation, many of the 71 graduates stayed close to home, and most of those who continued their education elsewhere "returned to our roots in this area," according to Dr. Schur.
He practiced medicine here for 57 years and now is semiretired. He served 30 years on the Oxford School Committee. No one stayed closer to home than William A. R. Klebart of Webster, who lives in the house he grew up in at 709 School St., Webster, that his father had built in 1913.
He took over the family business, Klebart Plumbing Supply, after his parents died and spent 60 years there.
"We were a nice group," he said of his class.
"I feel we did our job well. Our kids are doing well. That's really what we're put here for," said John K. Davis of East Woodstock, who worked for 35 years as a lens maker at American Optical in Southbridge.
"And we were good friends as long as we lived," he said, offering the names of close friends who had died.
But the reunion wasn't about loss, the former classmates said.
There were a few walkers and canes among the 12 graduates and six spouses attending Friday's get-together. They are now in their late 80s, but there seemed no limit to their enthusiasm or enjoyment of each other.
"We always start off talking about high school," Mrs. Cloutier said. "And we talk about what we're doing now and how we are.
"I remember I liked biology," she said. "Mr. Stafford was the teacher.
"Clifford," Dr. Schur offered. "Clifford Stafford."
"Lucy Phillips gave so much homework. And, you didn't want Lucy Phillips mad at you," Mr. Davis said. "She would give us 100 (math problems) a night. When I got to college, I got five."
The talk rolls from the past to the present to family, pastimes, aches, pains, plans and experiences.
And what were the best years? "Late 40s to 70s. Raising a family, business, travel," Mr. Klebart said. "About (ages) 35 to 50," Mrs. Cloutier said.
"2001," Dr. Schur said. "And every day when I wake up I thank the Lord for another day."
CATEGORY: Event TYPE: News Article DESCRIPTION: Telegram & Gazette. Worcester, Mass.: Dec 2, 2001. pg. B.1 DATE: 2 Dec 2001 NOTE: Author(s): Jean Laquidara Hill
Dateline: OXFORD
Section: LOCAL NEWS
Copyright Telegram & Gazette Corporation Dec 2, 2001
OXFORD -- At 87 years old, being alive puts Dr. Walter R. Schur in the minority of people born in 1914. Most men die before their 77th birthday.
Not only is Dr. Schur living, but he is among the less than one- half of 1 percent of Americans 75 and older who are still working, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics.
Dr. Schur, married and the father of 11 children, has been in private family practice for the past 57 years. He started treating patients before there was a vaccine for polio, before the proliferation of many of the specific and broad-spectrum antibiotics and before medication for high blood pressure. The word "angioplasty" had not been coined, and the diagnosis of cancer was a death sentence.
Health-maintenance organizations, managed care and third-party payments also did not exist -- nor has Dr. Schur ever involved himself with any of those practices. Holistic medicine was not the rage in 1944, when Dr. Schur opened his office at 367 Main St., but then, as now, he prided himself on treating the whole person.
That means listening to whatever a patient is willing to talk about, knowing a patient's work life, family life and temperament, and knowing what makes the patient happy or causes stress, he said. Sometimes, it means reassuring a patient about past decisions, or granting permission not to feel guilty.
Dr. Schur has delivered babies, treated diseases, reassured new parents and comforted the families of dying patients. He was on staff at the former Doctors Hospital in Worcester before it closed. It is now AdCare Hospital of Worcester, and he is a member of its board of directors.
He is the school physician for sports physicals at Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School in Charlton and at Oxford High School, besides his regular private practice.
The tall, slightly slouching physician, who is a charter fellow of the American Academy of Family Physicians and a member of the Massachusetts Medical Society and the Worcester District Medical Society, stopped making house calls several months ago. He recently reduced his office hours from four afternoons a week to two, but still spends most days at his office, reviewing patient treatments and tending to other responsibilities.
He has no plans to retire.
"I will continue to work as long as I enjoy what I'm doing. I don't want to work as hard as I had to formerly, but I enjoy the relationship I have with my patients," Dr. Schur said over gingersnaps and coffee that his wife served at home. "Many of my patients are long-standing, people who have come to me for many years. I want to continue my relationship with them."
While he has seen myriad changes in the field of medicine -- countless healing treatments and medications -- he sees little change in the way he practices medicine.
"I don't think there's too much difference in the relationship I have with my patients. But if I were to flow in the mainstream as medical practice is now, there would be a tremendous amount of difference. I don't allot 15 minutes to see a patient, as happens so often in managed care practice.
"I know my patients as people, not just as case numbers or diagnoses. I like to think it's almost the epitome of holistic medicine. It's not just about the symptom that brought the patient to me that I consider. I consider the patient's background, what might have caused the headache," he said.
"There is just so much input in diagnosing a situation that results in a person's well-being or non-well-being," he continued. "I spend a lot of time talking to my patients and listening. That's the most important part: listening to your patient."
James P. Purcell, Leicester town administrator, recalls having a physical done by Dr. Schur 20 years ago when he was hired as Oxford town planner. Mr. Purcell was the next patient after a screaming 3- year-old who had sprayed perfume in her eyes. The doctor had washed the child's eyes and calmed her enough that she forgot her favorite stuffed dog in the office, on the chair where Mr. Purcell sat to give his patient history.
"I hate to draw the Rockwell parallels, but the office and the doctor had that very comfortable feeling, and his was a reassuring presence," Mr. Purcell said.
He is not the only person to see Dr. Schur that way. Carol Iandoli, a registered nurse who has worked at the Charlton Rest Home for the past 37 years, assisted Dr. Schur when he tended to patients at the rest home until May, when his last patient was transferred to a facility out of the area.
"He had a very personal relationship with them, and most of his patients he had for years and years." she said. "In fact, we have people here who speak of him. Besides taking care of them as a physician, he had a lot of personal contact with them, knowing a lot of their family on a personal basis. He was very kind to them and caring of their emotional needs. That's the kind of person he is. He always spent a lot of time with them. His clock stopped when he was here."
Ms. Iandoli said she would assist Dr. Schur with procedures, then leave so patients could talk to him privately.
"He listened to whatever their worries were, and they knew he would keep them in confidence," she said, adding that Dr. Schur also demonstrated concern by calling to check on whether medications he prescribed were effective.
"A real country doctor -- just precious," Ms. Iandoli said.
The eldest of three children born to a mill worker in Webster, Dr. Schur developed a passion for medicine as a teen-ager.
"When I was in high school as a sophomore, I had a perforated appendix with peritonitis, and this was pre-antibiotic days. And it was touch-and-go for quite some time, and I think that was the incentive," Dr. Schur recalled.
"I admired what could be done by the medical profession," he said. Deciding he wanted to be a doctor meant buckling down in high school. Dr. Schur recalled being an excellent student in grammar school, but said, chuckling, that he "tapered off" in high school until he was a junior.
"I think I realized I was wasting some of the talents the Lord God had given me," he said, "and it was up to me to really accomplish what I could."
He attended Valparaiso University in Indiana, where he met his wife, Delta Jean, a nursing student. He has maintained a very close relationship with the school ever since, lauding its professors for their life lessons as well as academics and serving on the university's board of directors from 1969 until last year. Even as a college student, Dr. Schur said, he saw medicine as treating individuals, not illnesses.
"I differed from my classmates in premed by taking all of the humanities courses I could," he said. "I felt, even then, there was an art to the practice of medicine. Not just a science."
He graduated from Valparaiso in 1934 and from Middlesex University School of Medicine in 1940, then served internships and residencies at hospitals in Delaware and Ohio before hanging his sign at 367 Main St., where he set up practice in an office in his house.
He and his wife, a registered nurse, raised their children in the house until their family outgrew it. The Schurs then moved to a stately, spacious Victorian house on Charlton Street, where they eventually had 11 children, including Timothy Schur, principal of Shepherd Hill Regional High School; and their youngest, Rhoda Decatur, who teaches first grade at Clara Barton School.
While working and raising children, Dr. Schur said, he was the disciplinarian, and Mrs. Schur did nearly everything else with the children, her life revolving around them. At night after work, if he was reading the newspaper and a child wanted to climb onto his lap, "the paper always fell to the floor," Dr. Schur said.
While working days and nights, six days a week when his children were growing up and serving on the Oxford School Committee for 25 of those years, Dr. Schur said, he had to make the most of his time at home and listen carefully when his patients mentioned seeing his children out and about.
He tells a story about his son, Timothy, whom some of his patients called "the blond boy." Dr. Schur had treated too many motorcycle accident victims to allow his children to ride on or drive motorcycles.
When one of his patients innocently mentioned seeing "the blond boy" on a motorcycle, Dr. Schur smiled and conversed, then went home and confronted his son with the information, but not the source.
"There were consequences," Dr. Schur said, smiling slyly.
OXFORD - Dr. Walter R. Schur, 93, was born just before World War I and opened his family practice at 367 Main St. during World War II. He has no plans to retire, though he is not accepting new patients.
He was school doctor at Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School in Charlton from its opening in 1972 until last year, and said he is retiring this fall as school doctor at Oxford High School after 10 years.
"Children keep me young, but I'm ready to gradually fade out responsibilities," he said.
He has worked out of the same office for 64 years, but now limits office hours to two days a week.
"I've never had appointments. My patients just stop by. I've polled them over the years, and they like it this way," he said.
Dr. Schur was born on June 17, 1914, one of three children of mill worker Robert Otto Herman Schur and Alma Gatzke Schur of Webster.
Walter Schur was active in debating and played flute and piccolo in his school band and orchestra. "I was the only non-Slovak in the Slovak Band of Webster," he said. He attended church regularly and planned to join the clergy until one fateful day.
"My appendix ruptured when I was a sophomore at Bartlett High School. I had emergency surgery and nearly died, but I guess the Lord didn't want me yet."
Fascinated with medicine, he gave up plans to become a minister, but has remained deeply involved in the Lutheran Church, serving on the board of directors of the National Evangelical Lutheran Church of America and the Lutheran Laymen's League.
The Rev. Andrew D. Simon, pastor of Zion Lutheran Church, said, "Dr. Schur has been instrumental in every major decision this church has made. He has touched many lives with his faith and his passion."
Dr. Schur graduated from Bartlett High in 1931 and has enjoyed annual reunions with some of his 82 classmates, though the numbers have dwindled. Last summer, only four attended. This year he expects to be joined by Yvonne Menzone of Webster and Marguerite DelBello of Shrewsbury for a 77th reunion.
Dr. Schur graduated from Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Ind., then did postgraduate work at Middlesex College of Medicine & Surgery, Lutheran and Grace hospitals in Cleveland, and Milford Memorial Hospital in Milford, Del.
"It was in Milford that I was first introduced to antibiotics. Our hospital was used as an experimental showcase for penicillin. Antibiotics changed the practice of medicine," Dr. Schur said.
He and his wife, Delta Jean Newman Schur, a registered nurse and fellow Valparaiso graduate, bought their office and first house in 1944 from Dr. Elliott P. Joslin, famed for his work in diabetes.
"Dr. Joslin was very good to us. He'd often stop by Sunday mornings and check my scale. I don't know why," Dr. Schur said.
He and Mrs. Schur, whom he called "the perfect mother, wife and companion," had 11 children born between 1945 and 1963: long-distance truck driver Paul R. Schur of New Braintree; credit manager David C. Schur of Hollis, N.H.; business owner Jonathan W. Schur, who lives with his father; Department of Revenue employee Ruth N. Peterson, whose husband, Marc E. Peterson, is on the Oxford School Committee; Shepherd Hill Regional High School Principal Timothy M. Schur of Dudley; state Personnel Director Peter M. Schur of Paxton; medical sales representative Stephen A. Schur of Oxford; registered nurse Mary E. Giguere of Pepperell; architectural designer Joel T. Schur of Sterling; computer professional Daniel J. Schur of Westboro; and former elementary teacher Rhoda A. Decatur of Shrewsbury.
Mrs. Schur died in 2004 after 59 years of marriage.
"I had one boss until my wife died," Dr. Schur said. "Now I have 11."
He also has 18 grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
In 1951, as their young family grew, Dr. and Mrs. Schur bought Moses Buffum's former 13-bedroom home at 168 Charlton St., where Dr. Schur still lives.
His son, Jonathan, said, "Growing up, I thought mothers all came in maternity clothes."
Son Timothy M. Schur said, "It provided bedrooms for all of us, plus one guest. My father is a remarkable individual. He has always had a strong family and community commitment. He is very well-read, especially in medicine and local history. He was chairman of the board of the Huguenot Society and of the Friends of the Public Library."
Mr. Schur said that when he and his siblings needed medical treatment, "we waited our turn like anyone else. If we had been cut doing something stupid, the lecture hurt more than the sutures."
Dr. Schur, a member of the Oxford School Committee for 25 years, handed diplomas to all 11 of his children. As a member of the board of directors of Valparaiso University, he also handed Timothy his college diploma.
Dr. Schur and his close friend, former Auburn resident Dr. Jacob Spungin, stepped in for each other during vacations.
Elizabeth L. Prouty, chairman of Auburn Board of Selectmen, said she remembers taking her children to Dr. Schur on several occasions.
"He is a wonderful doctor, as was Dr. Spungin," she said, pointing out that a granite marker stands in Dr. Jacob Spungin Square at Wethered and Auburn streets in Auburn.
There are no monuments to Dr. Schur, though he has left his mark in town.
Oxford Selectman John G. Saad said, "Dr. Schur was very kind. Unlike today's doctors, he did house calls. ..." Timothy Schur recalled that when his father several years ago was asked, "What kind of a doctor are you?" Dr. Schur answered, "A good one."
CATEGORY: Event TYPE: News Article DESCRIPTION: Telegram & Gazette. Worcester, Mass.: Jan 13, 2009. pg. B.4 DATE: 13 Jan 2009 NOTE: Author(s): Ellie Oleson
Document types: News
Dateline: OXFORD Section: LOCAL NEWS
Copyright 2009 New York Times Company. All Rights Reserved.
OXFORD - The School Committee recognized one of its own last night. Dr. Walter R. Schur, 94, served on the committee for 25 years before being named school physician, which he remained until resigning last year after 10 years.
He also resigned last year after serving as school doctor at Bay Path Regional Vocational Technical High School in Charlton, from its opening in 1972 until 2007.
William C. Spitz, committee chairman, said, "We all thank you more than I can tell you for your years of service."
Ernest L. Boss, superintendent of schools, said, "In 1965, when I started my career here, you were chairman of the School Committee. You've served the children of Oxford ever since."
Dr. Schur said, "It's been an honor and a pleasure and has given me a great deal of pride to serve this community."
He said that a highlight of his life was receiving an honorary diploma from Oxford High School several years ago. "It authenticated my graduation."
Dr. Schur still maintains office hours in the same office he has worked in for 65 years, with only one small concession to his age: He now limits office hours to two days a week.
Dr. Schur was born June 17, 1914, in Webster. He originally planned to become a minister in the Lutheran Church, but after graduating from Bartlett High School in 1931, went to medical school. He graduated from Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Ind., then studied at Middlesex College of Medicine & Surgery, Lutheran and Grace hospitals in Cleveland, and Milford Memorial Hospital in Milford, Del.
In 1944, he and his wife, Delta Jean Newman Schur, bought their first house from Dr. Elliott P. Joslin, famed for his work with diabetes. Dr. Schur's office has been in that house at 367 Main St. ever since.
During his years on the Oxford School Committee, Dr. Schur handed diplomas to all 11 of his children.
Kevin P. Wells, Oxford High School principal, said, "Thank you, Dr. Schur, for your years of service."
Dr. Schur thanked the committee for honoring him and said, "We read a great deal about the Oxford School Committee. I know the tremendous amount of work you do. Only in the future will people appreciate all you do. It's been my honor and privilege to serve this community. Am I excused?"
Credit: CORRESPONDENT
CATEGORY: Event TYPE: Obituary DATE: 30 May 2011 NOTE: OXFORD - Walter R. Schur, M.D., 96, a family physician in Oxford for 65 years passed away at the Overlook Rehabilitation Center in Charlton on Monday, May 30, 2011. His wife of 59 years, Delta Jean (Newman) Schur predeceased him on February 4, 2004.
Dr. Schur is survived by his eleven children: Paul R. Schur and his wife Marilyn of New Braintree; David C. Schur and his wife Lynn of Hollis, NH; Jonathan W. Schur and his wife Sharon of Memphis, TN; Ruth N. Peterson and her husband Marc of Oxford; Timothy M. Schur and his wife Deborah of Dudley; Peter M. Schur and his wife Paula of Paxton; Stephen A. Schur and his wife Allison of Oxford; Mary E. Giguere of Pepperell; Joel T. Schur and his wife Loret of Sterling; Daniel J. Schur and his wife Amy of Westborough; Rhoda A. Decatur and her husband Thomas of Shrewsbury; eighteen grandchildren and seven great grandchildren.
He was born in Webster, the son of Robert O. and Alma L. (Gatzke) Schur. His two sisters, Mabel (Schur) Smith and Dorothy (Schur) Wykel predeceased him. He graduated from Bartlett High School in Webster in 1931 and attended Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, IN, from 1931-34, followed by postgraduate work at Middlesex University School of Medicine and Surgery in Waltham, MA, in 1940, completing residency at Milford, DE in 1941, and interning at Lutheran and Grace Hospitals in Cleveland, OH in 1942 where he met his future wife, Delta Jean Newman, a registered nurse.
Dr. Schur worked tirelessly in community, medical and religious organizations throughout his entire life. Locally, he served as a member of the Oxford School Committee for 25 years, the board of directors for the French River Education Center, the New England Huguenot Society, the Oxford/Millbury Rotary and the Sacarrappa Tennis Club. Dr. Schur proudly served as school physician for Bay Path Regional from its opening day in 1972 until 2005 and also, as the Town of Oxford school physician until his retirement at the age of 95.
Dr. Schur was the last surviving founder of Doctors Hospital in Worcester serving continuously on the board of directors from 1947 through its transition to AdCare Hospital in 1987 and until his death. Medical memberships included Fellow American Academy General Practice, American Academy Family Physicians, member American Medical Association, Massachusetts Medical Society, American Geriatrics Association, New England Obstetrics-gynecology Society and Worcester District Medical Society.
Dr. Schur was a lifelong member of Zion Lutheran Church of Oxford serving on the church council and board of trustees. He was well recognized throughout New England as well as nationally for his membership with the Atlantic District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod and with the East Coast and New England Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. He was past chairman of the Lutheran Hour Operating Committee, trustee of the East Coast Synod and a member of the national board of directors. Dr. Schur served from 1969 until 1999 on the board of directors at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, IN where he remained active until just recently.
Calling hours will be Friday, June 3, 2011, from 4-8 p.m. at ZION LUTHERAN CHURCH, 70 S. Main St., Oxford. A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. on Saturday, June 4, 2011, at Zion Lutheran Church, Oxford with Pastors Kenneth Bean, John Nieman, and Susan Nachtigal officiating. The burial will be held privately at a later date. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Zion Lutheran Church, Outdoor Chapel Fund, 70 S. Main St. Oxford, MA, 01540, to the Dr. Walter R. Schur Community Service Scholarship in care of the French River Education Center, 672 Main St., P.O. Box 476, North Oxford, MA 01537, or to the Valparaiso University, 1100 Campus Drive South, Loke Hall, Valparaiso, IN 46383. Paradis Funeral Home in Oxford is assisting the family with funeral arrangements. PLAC: Charlton, MA
