Heritage Snapshot: Part 209

Edwin H. Krick, M.D., was born August 13, 1935, at the Washington Sanitarium and Hospital, in Takoma Park, Maryland. His uncle, Roy Parsons, Sr., M.D. (a well-known missionary to Africa), and his mother (a minister’s wife and nurse who taught classes in prevention), inspired his interest in becoming a missionary physician. Following graduation from Adelphian Academy, a boarding school in Holly, Michigan, Ed attended Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster, Massachusetts, for four years. He started studying medicine at the Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists in 1957. For three summers, to earn his tuition during medical school, he sold Uncle Arthur’s Bedtime Stories and Bible Story sets door-to-door. He graduated as president of his senior class in 1961, just as the College of Medical Evangelists (CME) became Loma Linda University. The institution gave his class the option of having a diploma from the College of Medical Evangelists or Loma Linda University. Most chose to get both. Dr. Krick and many of his classmates chose to take one year of internship and start practicing family medicine. Following a year of internship at the White Memorial Hospital, Ed became a missionary to Japan. He studied Japanese for a full year in 1962 and passed the Japanese boards in 1963. Altogether he spent 8 years in Japan, practicing prevention as much as possible, including a successful series of the Five Day Plan to Stop Smoking. Dr. Krick returned to Loma Linda in 1970 with a desire to know more about prevention. He earned a master’s degree in public health in 1971, and completed a residency in Internal Medicine in 1973. In 1976, he completed additional studies in rheumatology and immunology at Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, California, and has been affiliated with Loma Linda University ever since. Most of that time he has directed the University’s Rheumatology Fellowship Program. In 1980, he became an Associate Professor of Internal Medicine. Because of his interest and education in prevention, and because of his experience practicing and teaching preventive medicine to student physicians, he became dean of the Loma Linda University School of Public Health from 1986 to 1990. In his semi-retirement, Dr. Krick’s current interest is in continuing to promote a healthy lifestyle and encouraging the use of as little medicine as possible. He says that billions of dollars are spent each year on products that probably have little or no benefit whatsoever. His greatest career reward was being able to learn about prevention and sharing his knowledge with individual patients as well as with groups. He and his wife, Beverly, co-hosted 100 episodes of “Healthy, Wealthy, and Wise,” a TV program on the Loma Linda Broadcasting Network. It encourages lifestyle habits that promote longevity; a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet (especially emphasizing fruits and vegetables), good exercise, faith, and trust. “All those things are dear to my heart and part of the Adventist heritage.” When his patients express gratitude for improved health, he likes to tell them that he can’t take the credit, that God does the healing, we do the cooperating.