SANTA CRUZ, CA – August H. Wells, M.D., was born the second son of Vernon and Frieda Wells in St. Louis, MO, on May 28, 1931.
Raised in Elma, NY, August was an Eagle Scout and graduated with honors from East Aurora High School in 1949.
Unable to attend college at the time, he became a fresh water merchant mariner on the Great Lakes, working up from coal-passer to Fireman and finally Oiler for the Cleveland Cliffs, Co. Armed with cash and a determination to get a good education, he entered Wooster College, in Ohio, where he excelled as a geology major. Landing a job with the Atomic Energy Commission inn 1953, he produced maps of both private and government uranium claims for the use of the US Geological Survey Maps. However, the Colorado plateau was not quite as alluring as a medical career, and ‘Gus’ was admitted to medical school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, graduating in 1958. He married his college sweetheart, Caryl Triebig, in 1955 and together they went west, where Caryl taught school and ‘Doc Wells’ found out what it was like to stamp out disease and pestilence as a rotating intern at Los Angeles County Hospital.
At that time, young MDs were still draft bait, so he volunteered to become a Navy Flight Surgeon, which involved training for six months at the Pensacola Naval Air Station. During that period of time he soloed the T-34 Mentor, and was given many hops in other Naval training devices including the famous Dilbert Dunker and Ejection Seat Training. High Altitude Anoxia Chamber time was another fun game played with all the fledgling flight surgeons. Soon he became a real Flight Surgeon assigned to Air Group 21 at Moffett Field, and was sent aboard the USS LEXINGTON to the South China Sea.
While aboard the ‘Lady LEX’, his love for airplanes and flying was solidified, even to the point of being checked out as a helicopter crewman to fly ‘plane guard’ during Air-OPS. In 1962 another decision had to be made…stay a Flight Surgeon, go out into private medical practice, or get specialty training. Ophthalmology tweaked his interest, and so did Stanford University, where he spent three long years, started his family, raising three beautiful daughters, and became familiar with the North Coast of California where he eventually settled, opened a private practice in Santa Cruz and ultimately went on staff at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara. The excitement was not over yet… Doc Wells pursued his passion for flight, winning his private, commercial, instrument, multi-engine, and instructor ratings. This gave him significant hours in Beechcraft, Piper, Bellanca and several twin aircraft. These talents were utilized while he and Caryl served as Medical Missionaries in Mexico and Botswana, Africa, in the 1970’s in association with his Stanford professors. Doc Wells helped bring modern eye surgery to the natives who had never before seen an eye surgeon, and became known as ‘Docrate’ by his close friends and family. Flying kept him occupied until his retirement in 1991.
One of “Gus’ Great Flying Adventures” was when, in July of 1974, he and a fellow pilot friend (with combined flight hours totaling less than 500…), took off for Alaska, crossing over the Arctic Circle with an idea of buzzing Russia. But they did not do so, feeling that the next 50 years would be more comfortably enjoyed on the beaches of Santa Cruz rather than the permafrost tundra of Siberia.
In addition to flying, Dr. Wells enjoyed the wilds of white water rafting on the Colorado river, golfing, English lawn bowling, and entertaining children with magic tricks he learned from Santa Cruz Magician and Clown legend, Carl Hansen, AKA ‘Hocus Pocus’. He was a member of many medical societies as well as groups; SIRS *(Sons in Retirement), QBs (Quiet Birdmen), Scotts Valley Men’s Club, served as President of the California Chapter of the Flying Physicians’ Association, and the WVI (Watsonville Municipal Airport) Pilot’s Association.
In his later life, he spent many summers and winters with his sister and family in the Caribou, Maine area. He became deeply enmeshed within this most northeastern community and even became an honorary member of the Kiwanis Club of Caribou, Maine.
He is survived by his wife, Caryl, and three daughters, Sarah Wells (Santa Cruz, CA), Rebecca McCartney (Los Gatos, CA), Katherine Wells (Templeton, CA); two sisters, Diana Rauch (Woodland, Maine), and Estelle Parker (Huntsville, Alabama), many nieces and nephews as well as two beautiful granddaughters. His brother, Randolph Wells, preceded him in death.
Interment at the Maine Veterans Cemetery in Caribou, Maine, will be at a later date. Remembrances can be sent to Stanford University Prostate Cancer Research, or to the Needy Freshman Student Fund at the College of Wooster; Wooster, Ohio.
