To the Editor:

I read with interest the letters in the last two editions regarding fond recollections of country doctors. They mentioned several in Voorheesville, Westmere [“Doctors Frank and Jane DeRook had ‘old school’ care and compassion”], and the Hilltowns [“Fond recollections of country doctors who welcomed newborns and comforted elderly patients”].

With admitted bias, I would also submit my late father, Alexander J. Arony, M.D. He practiced family medicine on the corner of Lydius Street and Carman Road in the Fort Hunter area of Guilderland for almost 40 years from 1952 to 1991.

He came to be relied on for everything from camp physicals to family counseling, made house calls, rounds at St. Clare's and Ellis Hospitals, and had office hours six days a week.

Upon his retirement, Kevin A. Moss, then Guilderland’s town supervisor, proclaimed Nov. 22, 1991 to be Dr. Alexander J. Arony Day at a well attended town hall reception.

The kind of medicine these doctors practiced is no more and for that we are much the poorer.

Philip Arony

Charlton, New York