Even at age 77, almost 50 years after receiving his medical degree, there are no obvious indications that Dr. Robert L. Howland should be stepping down.
Dr. Bob, as he is known at Columbus Urology Group, is tall, lean and fit. In conversation, he is thoughtful and engaging, yet authoritative. After only a few minutes of conversation, you can see why Dr. Bob inspires confidence and trust from his patients.
Why retire? It is not as though he has long-held some burning desire to embark on a new adventure impossible because of his work commitments. He doesn’t expect to travel the world. He has no designs on a second career, at least not yet. He’ll enjoy spending time with his wife, Debbie, his four children and seven grandchildren. He’ll do some volunteer work at his church, maybe.
“I’m just going to take a deep breath and see what happens,” he says.
After 44 years of practice in Columbus, including 42 years as a surgeon, Howland simply says, “it’s time.”
Howland, who grew up in Scottsboro, Alabama, is a big sports fan, especially when it comes to University of Alabama football. A framed collage of Alabama football photos is displayed prominently in his office.
It is somewhat natural, then, that he uses a sports analogy to explain his decision.
“You’ve seen players that stayed in the game too long,” Howland said. “I didn’t want to be one of those. That’s why I made the decision to stop doing surgery. I could still do surgery when I decided it was time to stop, but I would rather stop than continue until the point where I couldn’t do it. It’s the same with retiring. I can still do the job, but I just felt it was time.”
Howland saw his last patient Thursday. All that remains is to tie up the loose ends and pack.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee, before attending medical school at The University of Alabama-Birmingham. To help pay for med school, he applied for a state scholarship, which required a five-year commitment to practice medicine in Alabama.
Upon receiving his medical license he spent two years in general practice in his hometown of Scottsboro, before returning to UAB for his surgical residency. While there, he worked with a urologist, Dr. Lamar Miller.
“I was trying to decide what sub-specialty I wanted to pursue,” Howland said. “After working with Dr. Miller, I began to get interested in urology, so that was the sub-specialty I chose to pursue.”
During that training, he met Dr. Bill Gates, who had an established urology practice in Columbus. Gates asked Howland to join his practice.
“I started here on July 1, 1971 and I’ve been here ever since,”Howland said. “Since then, I’ve had opportunities to move, but Columbus became home to me. I can’t imagine practicing anywhere else.”
Over the course of more than four decades, much has changed in the profession.
“I started right at the time that Medicare and Medicaid were just getting started,” he said. “Before then, it was much more of patient-doctor arrangement. So that was a big change.
“So was the record keeping, which is computerized now and that’s something that took a while for an old dinosaur like me to learn.”
The advancement in technology, both in surgical equipment and diagnostics, is also far different now than when he began practicing medicine.
“You really relied much more on your observations, what you were seeing with the patient, his medical history. About the only thing we had back then were X-rays, which don’t provide the kind of information we see from the technology out there today.
“In a sense, I never did finish med school. You are always reading, studying and learning about something new.”
What hasn’t changed in all that time is something that was always Dr. Bob’s strong suit — relationships.
“After all this time, there are a lot of things I won’t really miss,” he says. “But what I will miss are my patients and the staff here. That’s always been the best part of what I do. So, even though I’m retiring, they won’t be getting rid of me. I’ll be around.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 43 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.