By Jessica Keller
The Courier-Herald
When Buckley doctor Douglas Tait showed up for his first day of work at the medical practice he bought from a retiring Buckley physician in 1960, he was immediately thrown into his new role when the retiring doctor announced he was leaving, and Tait was on his own.
That was 1960 and Tait, fresh out of residency, pushed away his fears, and for more than 30 years served the people of Buckley as their family doctor, becoming one of Buckley's most loved citizens. Now family, friends and patients in Buckley are grieving because their beloved "Doc Tait" died March 23 in Rochester, Minn., at the Mayo Clinic from complications from a heart attack a few days earlier.
The Tait family is hosting a special celebration of Tait's life from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at Buckley Hall for everyone to attend. Lunch will be provided, but the family said out of Tait's fondness for pie, they would welcome the donation of a pie or other dessert. An open house will follow the celebration from 3 to 5 p.m. at the Tait Farm, 29220 Borell Road East in Buckley.
Donna Tait said her husband moved to Buckley with his first wife, he fell in love with the community immediately, and that love never died.
"He always knew he wanted to be a small-town, family doctor," she said, adding that he wasn't thrown off by the knowledge he'd have to deal with all sorts of situations.
She said over the years Tait saw hundreds of patients, made almost as many house calls, took care of Buckley and Enumclaw jail patients and treated people at logging accidents. He saw patients at his own clinic, and also followed up on patients at other hospitals, making rounds at Good Samaritan in Puyallup and Enumclaw Community Hospital. On one of his busiest days, he saw 110 patients. Being a family doctor, he has also delivered hundreds of babies over the years, including Buckley Police Chief Jim Arsanto.
While Arsanto doesn't remember the delivery, he fondly remembers Tait, who was his doctor for nearly 25 years, and said Tait stitched him and patched him up many times.
Arsanto said the thing that stood out most about Tait in his role as "Doc" was his genuine concern and compassion for patients and his house visits. He said in old movies doctors would carry around their black bag making house calls day or night, and that was Tait as well.
"That's what he did," Arsanto said. "I mean, growing up with six kids (in the house) I don't remember how many times I saw Doc at the door with his black bag."
And Donna Tait said a lot of those calls he made for free but also said her husband accepted food as payment.
"A lot of co-pays came in the form of bread or cheese or something," she said.
Both Arsanto and Donna Tait said Tait had no problem taking calls or making house calls, no matter what the time of day.
Donna Tait remembers her husband receiving a call at about 11 p.m. and she tagged along as her husband went to see an elderly man, who was a longtime patient of Doc's, who was very ill. Tait didn't treat the man on this house call, but after deciding the man needed to go to the hospital, spent the time calming and reassuring the man while waiting for the ambulance, because he didn't want the man to be scared to go in the ambulance.
"He didn't think he'd done anything special," Donna Tait said. "That's just how he was."
Arsanto also speaks of Tait's calming and friendly bedside manner; he said not only was Tait's bedside manner friendly and caring, it was reassuring.
"Some how you'd think you were on your death bed, and he had a way of making you think you'd be out playing the next day," he said.
The doctor, however, was not without a sense of humor, which he carried with him everywhere Donna Tait said. Before his heart attack, in an airport shuttle on the way to take Donna to get medical tests, Tait said her husband was joking with a man in California.
Telling about his great love for birds, Tait threw in one of his customary jokes, telling the man he loved birds so much that once a year he went out and shot a coyote to feed the vultures. The joke apparently was lost upon the man from California, who, Tait said, gave her husband a strange look.
"If you didn't get his jokes, you didn't get his jokes," she said.
Tait said her husband loved to joke with her as well.
She said if he helped her do laundry and she had to run out, she wasn't surprised to walk into their house and find underclothes hanging from the chandelier or in the kitchen.
Tait also apparently would joke and tease his patients in a gentle way, to help cheer them up.
Arsanto remembers Tait teasing him when he came to treat a gash on Arsanto's leg he received from sliding into a base during an adult softball league game.
Tait was making one of his customary house calls that day because Arsanto, who had blood poisoning from his gash, was in too much pain to move. Tait told Arsanto he couldn't move for a couple of days, and Arsanto remembers Tait specifically instructed him he couldn't go out and drink alcohol, which Tait found amusing because that day was Arsanto's 21st birthday.
"He kind of got a real kick out of that," Arsanto said with a smile.
In addition to treating a good portion of Buckley patients, Tait also did work in the community. Donna Tait said her husband used to give emergency medical training to fire fighters before it became part of their formal training, and was named Buckley's only honorary fire chief by former chief Rob Roy. Tait also helped spearhead the movement for a Foothills Trail, and Donna Tait said at his retirement party, he raised $3,400 for the cause.
Donna Tait said just a few of her husband's other great loves were his 11 grandchildren, books - he had a huge book collection - art work and his Scottish heritage. Because he was so proud of his heritage, and because he loved them, Tait raised Scottish highlander cattle.
Out of love for the environment, Tait made sure his 64-acre farm would be protected, and he and his wife made arrangements with the nonprofit Cascade Land Conservancy to preserve the land.
Donna Tait said her husband worked on the farm daily. He would drive a tractor, she said, pulling her behind in a trailer. And bittersweet to her is the John Deere Gator, a battery-powered tractor, which the Tait's bought for their wedding anniversary last year; they made the purchase so she could ride with him.
"What can I say, he was my joy," Donna Tait said.
Jessica Keller can be reached at jkeller@courierherald.com
