Tributes to Charlie Huntington

To add your own memorial tribute
to Charlie Huntington,
please e-mail the editor of JAAPA at tanya.gregory@haymarketmedia.com.

From David Mittman, PA, founder of Clinican1, an online community for PAs and NPs. This memorial tribute first appeared on Clinician1. 

Charles Huntington III, a wonderful PA, passed away suddenly a few days ago. As we all are, he was many things; a husband, a father, a teacher, a leader, a clinician, an athlete, and more. Charlie was one of those people you never forget. Fate brought us together. Well, fate and a shared love for the PA profession. We had a mutual belief that PAs were needed all over America. Please allow me a few minutes to tell you a bit about the Charlie I knew.

Looking back at our lives, we were polar opposites. Charlie was quite tall and good-looking. He was from an old New York family that had been in the U.S. since the days of the American Revolution – I think even before. I was a shorter kid from Brooklyn whose grandparents came from Eastern Europe.

I grew up in an apartment building in Brooklyn, and my first PA job was at a medical group in the middle of Flatbush. Charlie's town had one stoplight and 500 people; mine had 4 million. Talk about opposites.

Charlie came from a family of physicians. In fact, his great, great grandfather wrote the first scientific paper describing Huntington's chorea, and the disease carries his name to this day. His dad was a radiologist while mine was involved in the textile industry.

Charlie was also an athlete. He was into running before most people, and he was the first person I saw wear real “running sneakers,” not the kind of sneakers we wore in Brooklyn to play basketball. He told me why people should wear those to prevent injury.

Upon graduation from PA school, Charlie moved to the “North Country” of New York State to set up a clinic in a town that had no physician. New York State had no NPs at the time, so he really was one of the first advanced practice clinicians out there alone. He was committed to rural health, not just in words but also in action, and really set up the template for PAs practicing on their own-in their own clinics. Charlie spent considerable money and time setting up the clinic so that he could defend it legally. He left a framework that many other clinicians went on to use for their own clinics.

Charlie and I met while we were both active in the New York State Society of PAs. We were both in our late twenties and practicing clinically. Charlie was climbing up the leadership ladder, and I was a few steps behind. A few years later, he became President while I was his President-Elect. As we worked hand in hand, we started to learn from each other.

At the time, the Medical Society of New York was clamping down really hard on PAs. They voted to “abort” the PA profession by “any means possible”. They were also printing stories in their newsletter that were untrue about the profession, such as “PAs are running their own hospitals” and “PAs are doing home deliveries.” They were increasingly trying their best to hold the profession down. They also steadfastly refused to officially meet with any PA leaders as they felt that would “legitimize” the profession. They decided to use one thing they could control, the ability of their members to get malpractice insurance. They owned the medical malpractice company that insured most of the physicians in NY, and they let their members know that they would deny coverage to any physician who worked with a PA, unless the PA practiced under direct (in the same room) supervision!

New York had just passed legislation granting prescriptive practice to PAs a year before, and prescribing really started to allow PAs to branch into areas and places where we would not need the physician on site. If the medical society succeeded with their malpractice insurance limitation, the rural clinics we were running would be doomed as well as the whole idea that PAs could be autonomous clinicians.

Charlie surprised us all when he announced that he had arranged a meeting with the President of the Medical Society. It was to be secret and we were to tell no one, but this physician agreed to meet with us at 6 am in an upstate hospital cafeteria.

Another huge difference between Charlie and me at that time was, as a Brooklyn boy, I was more emotional. I wore my feelings on my sleeve, and listening was a skill I needed a bit of help with. Being more emotional, I hugged almost everyone I met and kissed most of my friends. I know Charlie thought my behavior odd as he hid his feelings much better than I did and was an expert listener. As we worked together, I learned how to listen from Charlie.

We walked into the cafeteria, and Charlie commanded me to start off by listening and said that I should follow his lead. I did exactly that until I saw Charlie get a bit frustrated and I came back with a very reasoned and logical response following up on the thread that the medical society should drop their insurance threat. Charlie then followed up by using phrases like “restraint of trade” and “insurance commissioner” and let him know we would not be afraid to do whatever it took to keep our clinics open and running. I listened. Needless to say, partly because they knew our whole state organization was willing going to go the distance, they later withdrew their threat. Charlie would not back down.

As the years passed, Charlie would bring that determination and leadership to the AAPA at a time when the profession was growing and changing daily, acting as Vice President-Speaker of the House of Delegates and later President of the AAPA. I remember the AAPA Executive Director resigning during Charlie's term as president, and he stepped in and served as the Executive Director for almost a year.

Charlie later left rural practice and went on to work in health policy and medical education, getting both his MPH and DPH. He felt he could effect real change on that level also. As frequently happens, we got involved in different things and drifted away from each other. I always knew how he and his wife (another great PA leader) and kids were doing, but that's it.

There are so many more stories – many to do with how he believed and showed others that we were an answer to rural and urban underserved health care and how he fought for that. He believed that PAs should go out and show people how good we were and not let artificial barriers hold us back, either as individuals or as a profession.

He and I shared a friendship based on that passion and a shared vision of patient care. And by the way, over the next 25 years, every single time that I saw Charlie, he gave me the kind of Brooklyn hug he knew would make me feel great. Funny, you never know what we learn from each other.

May you rest in peace Charlie, and may the many leaders you paved the way for be an inspiration to your memory.

Your friend,

From JAAPA editor in chief Sarah Zarbock, PA-C

I was deeply saddened to hear of Charlie's sudden passing He was a shining example of what being a PA was all about. He always had a kind word and gave quiet reassurance – a really down-to-earth nice guy! Although his sudden passing is tragic, hopefully he will be remembered far more for his many accomplishments and the lives he touched. He was a gentle and thoughtful man who had a wonderful capacity to listen. He is a great loss to our profession; he will be sorely missed.

Sarah Zarbock

From Stephen C. Crane, PhD, MPH, former Executive Vice President/CEO of the AAPA and now Executive Director of the American Thoracic Society.

The last year or two have not been kind to the PA profession. We have lost several great leaders much too soon in their careers and in their lives. The unexpected death of Charlie Huntington is another great loss, and we especially mourn his untimely passing.

I first met Charlie in the early 1970s in Michigan, when he came to the state with Don Fisher to help lobby for enabling PA legislation in Michigan. Even at that time, he was an incredibly effective spokesperson, not just for the profession but for the larger goal of improving access to high quality health care for all. His background and resume were impressive even at that early stage of the profession and his career. I can tell you that his presentations and work with the Michigan legislature made a significant contribution to our efforts to get the first piece of PA legislation adopted in 1976.

Quite apart from my work with Charlie both before joining the AAPA in 1993 and of course afterwards, I knew Charlie in his work with the AAFP and in his studies in the doctoral program at Michigan. Charlie truly was a Renaissance man who was comfortable not only in medical professional settings but in academic life and public advocacy as well. In all that Charlie did, his intellect and capability were clear to everyone, as was his total commitment to serving society to the best of his ability. And that he did so well. His easygoing and affable manner made the power and logic of his arguments even more effective. He truly was an impressive and effective person.

I will miss Charlie for many reasons, but perhaps most of all because he epitomized for me what the absolute best qualities of a PA should be – smart, effective, passionate, and compassionate. Charlie could have been whatever he wanted to be – of that I have no doubt. The fact that he became and served so well as a PA among all the other things he did is something that he will be remembered for by the profession for many years to come.

Charlie was one of a kind – a leader, a role model, a dedicated humanist, and a caregiver of the first order. Most importantly, Charlie helped nurture the development of a profession that today is critical to meeting our nation's health care needs. We need many more Charlie Huntingtons, and while we all will miss him greatly, I hope that we will use his life and his work as a model for what we should strive to be and to achieve. Charlie would greatly appreciate knowing that we celebrate his life by continuing to pursue his vision and his work with a renewed dedication.