Retire? Yes, For Awhile, =o Medic Says More often than not, men who e retire from active military servae ice immediately put their talents to work for fun or profit as a : Se civilian. Not so in the case of Col. Thair formerly of Ogden. At) ; least, that’s not in his plans of) | C. Rich, the moment, “The word ‘retirement’ means yearjust that to me,” said the 59- . old chief surgeon for the U.S Continental Army Command at Fort Monroe, Va. He retires this month after 28 years of healing Army wounds. tions COL. THAIR C. RICH Fishing Neglected given “lve been putting off doing a armed forces. to members of the lot of things for a long time,” It was the second Legion of he said. ‘Fishing is one of them. Merit for Col. Rich. The first was} I’m heading for Florida to just awarded for services during World relax and take it easy. If the wife War II. — and I like it there, we’ll stay.” FOR HOW LONG? ‘ Col. Rich is terminating a disDoes the colonel really believe tinguished career with the Army his civilian neighbors will allow as a surgeon. He has just been a man of his prominence and exawared the Legion of Merit, one perience in medicine to remain in of the highest peacetime decoraretirement? After all, 59 is a in the a especially ss age, hee Se Sd 1 attended Ogden High School and the University of Utah before ob‘Itaining his M.D. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Medi|eal School in 1930. His wife, Margaret, is the step- Sea ,.w 5 ret OT een medical profession where ability, not age, is the important factor. “I guess not,” he admits. ‘I’m |mot even sure I’d like doing nothing for the rest of my life. But I'm going to try it for awhile. If I go back into medicine, it'll be in the public health field.” He holds a master of public health degree from Johns Hopkins University. Col. Rich is a native of Ogden, the son of Dr. Edward I. and the late Almire Cozzens Rich. He). er youthful daughter of Mrs. William Morris Pate of Dillon, S.C. A son, Richard, is an Army major stationed at Fort Gordon, Ga., and their daughter, Mrs. Jerry Coleman, resides in Salt Lake City. —_——_- RPawrant-—-- MPH ie ee 63 CFdastatadan AP 411-2917 763