Wednesday, July 1, 2009

RUTH ANN PARISH
Many of us who started school in the first grade at Pike vividly recall a vital member of our class, who moved away with her family during our 7th Grade year. We are honored that she will be coming back home to join us for our 40th Reunion on August 1st. Here is her story:
After leaving Indiana, I moved to Oregon , where I graduated from Beaverton High School in 1969. I graduated from Bryn Mawr College (just west of Philadelphia) in Anthropology in 1973, and Case Western Reserve School of Medicine in 1977. I finished my residency in Pediatric Medicine in 1980 and a fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine in 1982. I was married to David Paplow, M.D. from 1975-1999, and have two wonderful kids, Katherine Parish Paplow Wilson (she's married to Erik Wilson) and Benjamin Parish Paplow (I never changed my name when I got married, so both kids have my name as their middle name). I am a pediatrician in Kirkland, Washington, where I have resided for the past 22 years. Prior to that, I worked for 5 yrs at Harborview Hospital in Seattle (the regional burn and trauma center for Washington, Alaska, Montana and Idaho), where I saw enough tragedy in that time to last a lifetime.

I keep up with music through my church (Edmonds U. Methodist) by singing in a small ensemble and playing piano, guitar, drums and/or bass (though not all at once). I compose occasionally and arrange some, and generally keep my "right brain" balanced with my left (medical) brain in that way. I wrote 2 books in the 1990s about spirituality and infant/toddler development; they got "downsized" out of print when Random House bought Shaw Publishing house. I commute the 16.4 miles each way to and from work in my little electric car named "Tinkerbell" -- Miles Electric Vehicle company out of Los Angeles makes them, and it suits my needs in a great way. I tell people it's my first bid to be an eccentric little old lady . . . it runs on 6 cents of electricity a day, goes 45 mph and has a range of 40-50 miles, and I plug it in while at work at the hospital garage across the street from my office; then, I plug in at the house at night. Looking forward to seeing you all.