MILFORD — Serious medical events usually cause doctors to get moving. But in the case of a Greater Milford physician, one such episode convinced him it was time to slow down.
Dr. Reynold Dahl, 73, is retiring after 45 years in family medicine. Dahl said he knew it was getting to that time after experiencing a cardiac event four-and-a-half years ago, realizing he wanted to spend more time with family.
"It wasn't one particular moment that caused me to retire, but with the cardiac event in the back of my mind, who knows? It could happen again at any time and I didn't want to be when I'm with a patient," he said.
Dahl had lived in Whitinsville, where he is a family physician at Milford Regional Physician Group's Blackstone Valley Family Physicians office on Granite Street. He also taught UMass Chan Medical School students for about 30 years.
Looking back on his years with the Milford Regional Physician's Group, Dahl told the Daily News that his favorite memory was the 12 years he served as medical director of a program that provided various health services, such as lab tests and X-rays, to people without health insurance. It ran on Monday evenings from St. Camillus Health Center in Northbridge before ending in 2014.
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"I just found it as a way to try and make things a little more just in our health care system," Dahl said. The program saw fewer people participating in the years after the institution of Romneycare, a state health care reform law signed into law in 2006 by then-Gov. Mit Romney with the aim of providing health insurance to nearly all Massachusetts residents.
"That kind of worked us out of the need for that, which is the way it should be," Dahl said.
Dahl joined the Milford Regional Physicians Group 36 years ago.
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Dr. Patrick McSweeney, current president of the group — and a former student of Dahl's — said he will miss his mentor.
"He made a significant impression on me as a young physician," McSweeney told the Daily News. "It's sad to see him retire and he will be greatly missed in the Greater Milford and Blackstone Valley community. It was interesting for him to go from (being) my mentor, to my colleague and then I became his boss. He's a true gentleman and I'll miss him."
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Dahl, who now lives in Chatham, looks forward to having more time for things more fun than medicine.
"When you're in medicine full time, there's just very little time for other things," he said. "It's sort of the one thing that none of us have enough of and we always want more time."
After earning his medical degree from the University of Minnesota and praciticing for some time in a rural area of that state, he and his family relocated to Whitinsville. He, along with two other doctors, were instrumental in starting the department of family medicine at Milford Regional Medical Center.
"What really sticks out to me is always his calm demeanor," McSweeney said. "Health care can be overwhelming but it never seemed to get to him. He always had his patients best interest at heart."
Milford Regional Physician Group has 43 primary care and specialty medicine practices in Bellingham, Franklin, Hopedale, Hopkinton, Medway, Mendon, Milford and Northbridge.