Heritage Snapshot: Part 202

LOMA LINDA >> George H. Petti, Jr., was born Jan. 8, 1935, in Yonkers, New York. He was reared in Yonkers, where his father practiced medicine as an Otolaryngologist. As a child he was always impressed that his mother, a nurse, and father worked together, side by side, year after year, and were always happy taking care of the sick. When George was a child, he suffered from acute mastoiditis. He liked the way his father’s friend, chief of ear, nose and throat at the Bronx Eye Ear and Throat Hospital, treated him. That experience motivated his interest in the specialty he practices today. George attended Halstead High School in Yonkers, New York University, and Atlantic Union College. He became a Seventh-day Adventist in 1952. He had been encouraged by his mother who became an SDA in 1948 after his uncle, Ernest Edwards, home missionary secretary for the General Conference, had given her Bible studies. In 1955 George married his wife Beatrice in Yonkers at the New York Dutch Reformed Church. Dr. and Mrs. Petti have a daughter and two sons. Although George’s father was not a Seventh-day Adventist, he knew about the College of Medical Evangelists in Loma Linda because he had met some of its graduates where he taught at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. Because he was impressed by their fund of knowledge and the way they treated patients, he encouraged George to attend CME. George started medical school in Loma Linda in 1958 and graduated in 1962. After serving in the United States Army for two years, Dr. Petti took another year of general surgery at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx and then entered his residency in Otolaryngology at the Manhattan Eye, Ear & Throat Hospital. He then took a fellowship with the Pack Medical Group and Dr. John Connelly, in New York, where he studied head and neck oncology and reconstruction from 1969 to 1970. Dr. Petti’s career at Loma Linda University School of Medicine started in 1976. Immediately, he noticed that Loma Linda University had a spirit of cooperation that couldn’t be matched anywhere else. If he had challenges, he could interact easily with other specialists, thus allowing his patients to benefit from a team approach. It made for better patient care. It was something he had not seen before. He started training resident physicians in 1978. Dr. Petti now works part time at the Jerry L. Pettis Memorial Veterans Medical Center. He is favorably impressed with the veterans, many of whom have accepted God and His power and grace. They know first hand that He is always willing to help through bad times and good. He says that it is satisfying to be able to continue working with patients who are trusting.