His grandfather was a Kennewick doctor for 50 years. He’s returning as a med student

When Dr. Rod Coler was considering coming to the Tri-Cities, he asked his soon-to-be wife where he should practice.

It was 1958 and he was a resident at Portland’s Veterans Affairs Hospital. And Dr. Ralph deBit and the three other Kennewick doctors were asking him to move to the town of 13,000.

“She said, ‘You go where you’re needed. Don’t stay here in Portland, and that was the famous statement,” he said. “That was handed-down at many a dinner party.”

Now the 95-year-old internal medicine doctor’s grandson, Brahm Coler, is also following his grandmother’s advice.

The WSU Medical School student just finished up a week of clinical work in the Tri-Cities between his Spokane campus classes.

Brahm Coler is one of 80 students in the school’s third class of medical students.

While they are based in Spokane, the students spend time learning in local clinics and hospitals on eight-week stints.

When he finishes classes, Brahm Coler will spend two years at the Richland WSU campus finishing his degree.

His grandfather’s story of coming from the big city to rural Washington left an impression that was strengthened by his time at Walla Walla’s Whitman College and in medical school.

“I am really passionate about becoming a physician so I can address the (shortage) of reproductive healthcare on the eastern side of the state,” he told the Herald.

Legacy of doctor recruitment

Dr. Rod Coler was one of the first doctors to move to Kennewick — a bedroom community to Richland with 28,500, mostly there because of the nuclear work at Hanford.

When Dr. Ralph deBit and the other doctors invited him, they promised him three months of free rent.

“That was my first hint that it was going to be hard work,” he said.

He was proven right.

While not all of the general practice doctors were happy to have an internal medicine specialist working next to the old Kennewick General Hospital, they soon came to accept them.

And then he soon started recruiting new doctors to Kennewick General Hospital, now called Trios Health.

“One time I went to a medical meeting in Seattle, as the speaker was leaving the podium, I rushed out grabbed the microphone and said, ‘Wait a minute, Wait a minute. Don’t leave. I’m Rod Coler. I live in Kennewick, Washington. I want you to know, I need help over here.’”

He and his wife Thelma, brought their potential recruits to the local country club for dinner and offered them free rent for a couple of months.

The hospital grew from 30 to 101 beds while he worked there, before he joined the hospital’s board in 2003, according to the Tri-City Herald at the time. He finally retired at age 82 in 2007.

Return to Eastern Washington

The Colers had four children, including Dr. Clark Coler, who would work with his father for a short time before moving to Seattle. He continues to work at Swedish Medical Center.

Clark’s son, Brahm, said his family never pushed him to go into medicine, but he became interested in it when he was in high school. He was really drawn to it after he started at Whitman College.

It was also there that he began to learn about the disparity of medical care in Washington state.

Even in Benton County, which boasts two hospital systems and a number of clinics, the number of doctors per 100,000 people trails most Western Washington counties, according to a 2016 University of Washington report.

It’s worse in Franklin County, which falls behind many of its neighbors.

As Brahm Coler worked toward his undergraduate degree he started attending a feminist club meeting and learned about the shortage of medical care in reproductive health as well.

His grandmother’s call to, “Go where you’re needed,” aligns with Brahm Coler’s motivations.

“I do strongly feel that if I can have an influence and I can make an impact and I don’t, then I’m personally responsible,” he said.

“I think in many ways that is part of what has made me particularly interested in coming to Eastern Washington,” he said. “I know that practicing medicine out here would have a tremendous influence, probably more so than if I was practicing out in Seattle.”

While he isn’t certain about what the future may hold, he said his experiences have motivated him to consider staying on the east side of the Cascades.

And his grandfather said he’s proud of both his son and grandson for choosing to help people through medicine.