San Francisco

After Malcolm had been doing research at the Rockefeller Institute in Princeton, New Jersey for 3 years he realized that he had to get an internship. He said:

It was beginning to be evident that if you got your M.D. and didn’t get your internship within a 5 year period, there may be real problems in getting licenses to practice medicine. So after I had been 3 years at the Rockefeller Institute—that’s 3 years after I got my M.D.—it became evident that I just had to figure out some way of getting back and get my internship. So they allowed us at the Rockefeller Institute that they would give me a fellowship...They said any place in the country you want to select—we’ll cover you for. So they covered me for my internship at the University of California hospital.

If you'll recall, he was impressed by the beautiful weather he saw in California while at a conference there one February, while attending school in snow-laden Logan. So this was an opportunity to get there.

Bruce, Don, Thelma and Malcolm Merrill. Golden Gate State Park, San Francisco, California, about 1936.

Malcolm told about his first year there:

And then after the internship they offered me an assistantship in dermatology to head up the syphilis clinic at the UC hospital in San Francisco....So I didn’t actually get to complete my first full year of residency, because they kind of drafted me to go into the state health department and head up the venereal disease control program in the state health department. And that’s where I got "sunk" for 29 years, in the California State Health Department.

(Everyone laughed when he said "sunk"). Thelma expounded on his position there:

Malcolm was director of this department of venereal disease control. Then he was director of the state laboratories. Then he was assistant director of the state department of public health. And then he was the director of the state department of public health, for nearly 12 years.

Thelma and Malcolm Merrill with Bruce and Don.
Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, California. About 1937.

Bruce with "gun". (Early military training?)

Don suffered from rheumatic fever and had to miss six weeks of school.

Don Merrill with Rheumatic fever.

Wesley J. O'Dell, Claude Lindsay, Serge Lauper, Malcolm H. Merrill.  Sunset Ward, San Francisco, CA, about 1938.

Apparently Golden Gate Park was a favorite place for the annual family photo.

Thelma and Malcolm Merrill with Bruce and Don, about 1938.

Bruce, Don, Thelma and Malcolm Merrill. Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. About 1939.

Don Merrill, about 1939.

Bruce Merrill, about 1939.

Malcolm and Don Merrill in suits.

In the "69 Questions" episode of Mark's recordings of "Pearls from the Past", Thelma was asked "What were your feelings about moving?" and she said,

Loved it.  We thought it was great.  I couldn’t count how many houses I lived in.  We lived in a house in San Francisco first, at the foot of the hospital where Malcolm did his internship.  We lived in a house on the 3rd  floor, and Don and Bruce’s feet got pretty big from running up and down those stairs.  And I got pretty heavy because Jeanie was on the way.  So that’s why we moved to Cragmont.

In our next episode, we'll meet "Jeanie"!