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The Art of Dr. Willard J. Carmel, Jr., M.D.: A Retrospective

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Written by Peter Carmel

Wednesday, 05 December 2007

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The Art of Dr. Willard J. Carmel, Jr., M.D.: A Retrospective
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Upon retirement in 1983, Dr. Carmel embarked upon the art career he always wanted. For nearly twenty years he created works of art that reflected his social and aesthetic values. He also represented the places that had lasting personal importance to him.

Dr. Carmel was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1921. His ability to draw and paint came naturally through his mother (Estelle Todd of Brooklyn), who had talent but no desire to make art, even as a hobby. Throughout childhood and through his teenage years he took art classes through the Art League in New York City where he was encouraged to continue studying art. His fellow students drafted him to make illustrations in the Erasmus High School Yearbook in Brooklyn, NY. He began a lifelong habit of regularly visiting museums and galleries exhibiting works he admired.

However, the desire to become a professional artist was nipped in the bud when Bill took a summer job as a teenager in the Sulka Tie Factory in New York City ?painting? silk ties. The words from his father (Willard Sr., an engineer), ?You?ll never make a living as an artist,? echoed in his mind and influenced his career choices later on.

Willard entered the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill as a pre-med student. With the war raging in Europe, he was placed on the fast track to become a doctor for the Navy; he completed college and medical school at New York University in six years. He entered the Navy in early 1945 and was sent to the South Pacific on a Navy Seaplane Tender until WWII ended. Even though he stuffed cotton in his ears against the thunderous noise generated by the gun turrets he manned, poor hearing plagued him ever after.

In 1945, shortly before the end of his military service, he married Helen Andreyko, a nurse at Belleview Hospital in New York City; he completed his residency at the University of Pennsylvania in 1950. After an interview with Henry J. Kaiser, the great visionary industrialist, Dr. Carmel was hired as one of the first six doctors to build and open the first Kaiser Hospital in the United States in Walnut Creek, California ? the first Kaiser facility in North America was built in Vancouver, Canada. The Carmels moved to Alamo in 1951 and built a house together in 1963. Eventually they had four sons ? Willard III, (Bill) Carmel of Danville, Stephen Carmel of Santa Barbara, Peter Carmel of Sunnyvale and Charles Carmel of Alamo.

Mr. Kaiser and the doctors he recruited shared the belief that people would benefit most from preventative care; that costs could be shared and kept affordable; that they could administer themselves best as a group; and that this methodology would provide first class health care. Most people have no idea the kind of courage it took for them to practice medicine in this new way, nor the price they would pay. They were labeled harbingers of socialized medicine, shunned and ostracized by fellow doctors and the American Medical Association for many years. Dr. Carmel was finally licensed in 1954. Little did anyone realize that eventual shadow control of hospitals, medical schools and research facilities by multinational drug and insurance cartels would be infinitely worse than the feared ?socialized medicine? of the 1950?s. Dr. Carmel continued practicing at Kaiser Walnut Creek until his retirement in 1983 and never looked back.

Helen and Willard divorced in 1965. In 1976 he married Betty Worland, a high school English teacher from Palo Alto; they settled in Oakland. During his long career in medicine, he collected many works of contemporary lithographers.
In 1984, he and Betty moved to Palo Alto. His continuing interest in lithography started him on a course of study at the Palo Alto Art Club. On their old funky press, he quickly mastered the process and soon was teaching classes to other local artists. Many of the works shown here were done on that press. In 1988 he and Betty moved to Tacoma, Washington to be near Betty?s daughter and grandchild. He built a small art studio in their home, purchased his own press and continued creating lithographs.

Dr. Carmel moved back to the San Francisco Bay Area in 1998 to be closer to his family. He was a member of the Valley Art Gallery in Walnut Creek for many years. He and Betty divorced in 2002. Work on art stopped completely by 2004 when dementia (Alzheimer?s) affected his brain. He currently lives with his dog Frosty at his home in Pleasant Hill.

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