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Germantown physician reflects  on 50 years of practicing medicine

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By William G. Schmidt, Contributing Writer 2:08 PM Thursday, November 19, 2009

Dr. Bernard Berks looks back on five decades in Germantown and can’t quite believe where the years have gone.

“It’s hard to believe we’re talking about 50 years,” he said.

And yet that’s what the calendar says. It was in July 1959 that he finished his internship at Grandview Hospital and opened an office in Miamisburg.

But Berks was asked by Grandview doctors to cover a practice in Germantown, and so he picked up a second office.

“A doctor that was there was going to be leaving,” he said.

In September 1959, Berks began seeing patients in a small storefront office across the street from the Florentine Hotel. “I was only supposed to be here until another doctor would be here to take over,” he said.

“That never happened.”

After a year or two, Berks dropped his office in Miamisburg and devoted himself full-time to Germantown. That first office rented for $25 a month. Two years later, when the owner added hot water, the rent rose to $30.

In his early years, Berks said he had some concerns about how the community would accept a Jewish physician. Those fears quickly melted away.

Some days he would return to his car and find perhaps a dozen apples, baked goods, even eggs. “I was happy for it,” he said.

For Berks, there was never any career path but for medicine. “I never knew other than a desire to be in medicine,” he said.

Hailing from Sharon, Pa., Berks followed the same road west as Germantown’s earliest settlers. “The founders of Germantown not only came from Pennsylvania,” he said. “They came from Berks County.”

Coming to Ohio netted Berks another prize — his wife of 47 years, Claire. Berks was ushering at a synagogue where he was entrusted to keep a door closed during a part of the service. But the door burst open and a “lady came in chasing a 5-year-old girl.”

Berks walked to the head usher and explained that the lady was destined to be his wife. His wife, it turns out, told her family that she had met her future husband.

That five-year-old girl was Claire’s sister.

The couple has two children, Stephanie and Jonathan, and four grandchildren.

Berks is known in Germantown not only for his medical practice but also for his extensive collection of antique medical equipment. He displays it in his office.

Twelve years ago, he spotted an old scalpel in an antique store in Charleston, S.C. “I remembered seeing one of those in a medical book long ago,” he said.

At first, when he heard the price, he said, “I really don’t want it that bad.”

Later, when he decided he really did, a collection that continues to this day began.

Berks works six days a week. One day is spent in Batavia as a medical examiner for the Federal Aviation Administration.

Berks, who turns 77 on Nov. 24, isn’t considering any changes to his schedule.

“I don’t feel old. I really don’t,” he smiles. “I decided I’m going to go for the next 50 years.”

Contact this columnist at (937) 696-2080 or

williamgschmidt@verizon.net.

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I have known Dr. Berks and his family my entire life, and I can tell you that they are fine, fine folks. Congratulations on such a career. The small town doctor is indeed a fading star.

former g-town resident
3:57 PM, 11/19/2009

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