As retirement from his Internal Medicine and Travel Medicine practice neared in 2024, it was suggested to Steven Stocks M.D., that there was still a need for him and his institutional knowledge at Flormann Clinic. At the time, Dr. Stocks, now 78, hadn’t exactly pictured spending his retirement at the clinic from which he’d just retired. The more he thought about it, though, the more it made sense, since he had been there for 25 years—the very beginning of the building itself — and had been practicing medicine for 44 years total.
So, Dr. Stocks retired…then returned to Flormann Clinic to volunteer as a greeter at the main entrance. “When you’re a doctor and you’re back in your exam rooms, you don’t know what’s going on at that front door. You don’t realize how busy it is. Many people are referred to that clinic and when they come they don’t know where to go. I’m right at the front door for them.”
Because of his long history at the clinic, he is a familiar face to the many patients, Physicians and Caregivers who come through the doors. In fact, his wife, Cindy Stocks, CNP, still works on the first floor in Primary Care.
Dressed in his daily uniform of a sport coat, collared shirt, slacks and polished shoes, Dr. Stocks aims to set a caring, gentle tone right when visitors walk in. He is even known to accompany people onto the elevator and press the button to the proper floor, just to make their journey easier.
“We do have a giant screen that acts as a directory in the waiting room. It can take quite a bit of time to go through it, though,” says Dr. Stocks. “Even in this past year, we’ve gotten a lot of new providers. I study the screen myself so I know who these new providers are and where they’re at.”
Dr. Stocks will have yet more studying to do soon, as a total of five additional physicians will be added at Flormann Clinic over the next six months.
When he’s not at the clinic, Dr. Stocks often takes his sweet-natured Springer Spaniel, Duchess, to three different nursing homes to visit some former patients and even old doctor friends, something he’d looked forward to doing even before he retired.
Dr. Stocks is happy to continue volunteering at the clinic as long as his health and mobility hold up, which they have so far. Ever the physician, he always has patients as his priority. “I want to do what I can do for them, and I want to help the clinic too. That’s one of the chief things in my mind and my life, helping people,” he says. “The patients help me in many ways, too. They really raise me up when they come in. It’s a very good feeling, especially when they want to give you a hug. It gives me a great deal of pleasure to volunteer.”
Story and Photo by Kory Lanphear