After 50 years of practicing medicine, with a large majority of his time spent in his hometown of Bridgeport, Dr. David Ray is hanging up his stethoscope.
Ray will close out his career at the Family Clinic of Bridgeport practice at the end of November.
“I’ll be 83 in February. I mean, I’m getting old,” Ray said with a laugh. “It’s not as easy as it used to be, to get up and do everything.”
Ray knew he wanted to get into the medical field from a young age. In his youth in Bridgeport, he was fortunate to be mentored by physicians at the local hospital, working as an X-ray and lab technician before he took a crack at medical school.
But the first time he applied, Ray didn’t get in. He opted to go to pharmacy school instead and afterward began working at The Corner Drug Store in Bridgeport.
After two years in the pharmacy, Ray was encouraged to apply to the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine (now a college within the University of North Texas Health Science Center), where he served as president of its first graduating class in 1974.
Following his residency and a two-year stint at a practice in Snyder, Ray came back home to be near his family.
“I talked to some of the local doctors here, and they welcomed me into their practice,” Ray said. “I practiced with them for a couple of years, and then I decided I wanted to have my own clinic and go out on my own.”
Ray purchased his childhood home from his father on Stevens Street and converted it into his own clinic, while also maintaining hospital practices in Decatur and Bridgeport over the years.
In the early 1990s, Ray established Family Clinic, the first building in that area of Bridgeport. As an homage to his father, long-time Bridgeport banker Woodrow Wilson Ray, Ray named the street after him.
“I think he had aspirations for a medical career,” Ray said. “Because of various constraints financially and because of [World War II], he just wasn’t afforded the opportunity to go to school.”
Family Clinic also operated a pharmacy and surgery center on-site before growth in the city resulted in an attempt to bring a hospital back to Bridgeport.
Area physicians banded together with their own money for a startup non-profit hospital. The city purchased land for the facility and also secured a $3 million line of credit.
The idea was good, but the timing was bad, Ray said.
“That was the ’08 recession. That hit us hard,” he said. “Plus, the direction of hospitals at that time was going toward corporate medicine. We were a bunch of docs trying to do this, and the government wasn’t too crazy about that, neither were the insurance companies.”
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Ray, however, remained steadfast in his practice, leading up to his well-deserved retirement next month.
The medical landscape was much different when Ray got his foot in the door.
He recalled an instance in medical school where a professor told his class the life expectancy for a primary care physician was just 54 years. It was before specialists were widely available, and doctors were tasked with virtually every medical responsibility in a practice.
He’s on pace to eclipse the number by almost 30 years.
Ray also laughed at the thought of his naivety from when he was a teenager wanting to break into the medical field.
“I envisioned that I would become a doctor, I’d make a million dollars, then I’d retire,” he said. “I thought I’d have enough to live as long as I wanted.”
The doctor’s impact has been felt throughout Bridgeport over the years through numerous avenues. Whether as a part-time chemistry teacher or revitalizing a nursing home previously under state control, Ray’s heart has been in his hometown.
It was an easy decision to give back to Bridgeport.
“I largely came back because of my mother’s health at the time. But even after she passed, there wasn’t any reason for me to leave,” Ray said. “I’ve had the opportunity to work with my friends and have friends as my patients. I’ve seen generations come through my practices — I’ve literally delivered babies from moms who I delivered when they were babies.”
Ray and his wife, Sue, won’t have to worry about boredom in his retirement. With five kids, 12 grandchildren, two great-grandchildren and couple more on the way, there’s plenty to enjoy outside of practicing medicine.
“We’re going to got visit them,” Ray said. “We’ve also talked about going to see the parks in the West… We’ve got us a little trailer, and hopefully, we’re going to see a little country.”
Ray has more credentials and achievements than most can dream of, but those are far from the most important things in his career. Earning the community’s trust as a healthcare provider sits high above any accomplishment for the doctor.
“This has always been about the people of Bridgeport and Wise County. It’s been an absolute honor to serve them as a physician,” he said. “You don’t go out and get patients; people volunteer, they come to you. That has been the biggest honor of all.”
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