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California connection

Longtime Prince George residents Dr. George and Liz Haley have been quietly living their dreams. Here is their story in a nutshell. George was born in Santa Monica, Cal. in 1943.
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Liz and Dr. George Haley have grown their family and careers in Prince George. Here they are in George's blacksmith shop.

Longtime Prince George residents Dr. George and Liz Haley have been quietly living their dreams. Here is their story in a nutshell.

George was born in Santa Monica, Cal. in 1943. His father was a surgeon and ever since he was little George knew he wanted to be a doctor.

He grew up knowing how competitive it was to get into medical school, so he armed himself with a BSc in zoology at the University of Redlands in Southern California as well as an MSc in biology at McGill University. He was accepted into Dalhousie Medical School in Nova Scotia where he received his MD in 1973.

George explained, "I met Liz quite serendipitously. While at the University of Redlands my roommate's car inadvertently rolled down the hill and careened into some bushes of a neighbouring house. This unfortunate meeting ended up with my roommate marrying the elder daughter of that house and I was to be their best man. I knew she had a younger sister so I made it my mission to look her up. One thing led to another, we got married and the rest is history.

"In 1975, while still in Southern California, I received a medical school alumni letter where former classmate Dr. Laurie Cook posted that he needed a locum for his practice in Prince George. I responded along with another fellow classmate Larry Breckon and we both ended up splitting this locum. We both ended up with a permanent medical practice in Prince George.

"I immediately liked this area because it had an unusually congenial medical community. Being somewhat rural, working in Prince George allowed me to do a broader scope of medicine than a more urban centre could offer. Larger centres have a lot more specialists that would end up doing that work. At that time, Prince George had several specialists like obstetrician Dr. Eldon Lee, surgeons Dr. Bob Ewert and Dr. Jack McGee and a few others who could back up the family doctors.

"In those days, doctors were responsible for their patients at all times; there were no walk-in clinics and there were no dedicated emergency room physicians. Family doctors would take turns being doctor of the day covering any patients who didn't already have a family doctor. One such encounter became a highlight of my medical career.

"In 1976 a nun arrived at the emergency room and I was working as the doctor of the day. She had been sick for eight days with appendicitis and could easily have died. When I asked her why she didn't come in a week earlier she said she was from Fort Ware, the weather was bad and it was a long way to the hospital. I just shook my head as we went into the operating room.

"I was new to Prince George and I knew the city encompassed Fort George and South Fort George, so I figured Fort Ware was part of the greater Prince George area. However, during her surgery I learned from Dr. McGhee that Fort Ware was actually an aboriginal community located 300 miles north of Prince George. The next morning at rounds I apologized profusely to her for not understanding. She then explained that Fort Ware had a population of about 150 people, there was no road into the community and no hydro power - just propane lights and generators. She had become sick and was snowed in. When the weather finally broke enough to travel, she was transported by snowmobile skimmer down the Finlay River to the head of Williston Lake and then down to Mackenzie. From there she was driven 100 miles by ambulance to Prince George. I asked about the medical services in Fort Ware and was intrigued when she told me they had very little. They used to have a doctor who would visit once a month but he was now too ill to carry on. She suggested that I might be interested in the position.

"I jumped on the offer and for the next 20 years I was flown into both Fort Ware and Ingenika once a month to see patients. I brought along my office nurse, all of our food and most of the necessary medical supplies. It was a hopeless business model - although I was paid for the individual patients I saw, there was no pay offered for the day of flying, nor for the many, many occasions I was unable to fly back out due to inclement weather. As a result, I had to cancel patient appointments at my own Prince George office."

His flights included severe weather conditions of all kinds and many dangerous white-knuckle landings. In whiteout conditions, the trips in and out were made by helicopter.

George explained, "It was at that point that I knew that my medical career was never going to be about the money; it was going to be about the people. My greatest pay came when my patients - or should I say my friends - from Fort Ware and Ingenika came to Prince George and looked me up just to say hello."

George also loves his role as a tutor with the first and second year local medical students. He is proud to have received a Mentorship Award from the students recognizing him for his unwavering mentorship, support and commitment to the success of the Northern Medical Program.

Other recent awards are the Lasting Impressions Award which recognizes his outstanding contributions to medical education and a plaque in recognition of 39 years of outstanding medical service from June 1975 to his retirement in January 2014 from the Prince George Medical Staff Society and Northern Health.

George is an accomplished fur trapper (he originally bought his trapline from Dr. Eldon Lee in the 1980s), woodworker and a blacksmith. Some of his efforts are displayed in the Two Rivers Art Gallery Shop.

George's wife Liz (Cocozza) was born in Scotland in 1953. Her father was a veterinarian and moved the family to the Caribbean island of Grenada.

Liz said, "My father soon changed hats and became a veterinary public health advisor with the United Nations. Diplomatic service entailed many moves in my early life from Texas to Argentina and in fact, I lived in eight different countries before I was 20. Our move to Prince George finally meant stability and it was just what I needed."

Although she had a BA in English her real career goal was to be a stay-at-home mom and raise children. George and Liz have three grown children; daughters Susie (Bjorn) Butow and Katie (Corey) Naphtali live in Prince George and their son Edgar lives in Southern California. Susie and Katie have also followed their father's footsteps into health care; Susie is a local family doctor and Katie is in third year nursing. Their son is a mathematics professor in Orange County.

Liz proudly said, "We also have five grandchildren who live here in Prince George and they are all perfect in every way.

"Apart from our children and grandchildren my other passion is designing websites. Back in the mid '90s I became the web department manager of a local company and a decade later I started my own business, Simple Sites, which continues today.

"I think part of the reason George and I have such a successful marriage is because we share such diverse interests and now in our retirement, we are busy with all of them doing exactly what we love. Happy doesn't even begin to describe what we are."

George concluded by saying, "It all really started 43 years ago when I married Liz and we moved to Prince George. We have lived our dreams and we are still doing it. Now that we are here and I look back it wouldn't take me two seconds to decide to come here all over again."