History of Sacry's 50 Years Serving Whitehall Community

In October of 2023, Dr. Gayle Sacry celebrates 50 years of serving the Whitehall community via medicine and the Whitehall Medical Clinic. Here Dr. Sacry details the history of his contribution to Whitehall and all of those who helped along the way.

Dr. Robert Hill was the physician and general practitioner, for many years in Whitehall. He was a kind man and competent professional and a person that many of us looked up to. We went to him with our cuts and bruises and tonsillectomies. Many women sought his help with their deliveries. He may even be the reason that I went into the medical field. When I was young, he was the doctor. And after many years, I suspect he was considered the old-timer in Whitehall. Well, it appears now that I have taken over that title. This year will be my 50th year of practicing medicine in Whitehall. For six years previously, I had practiced medicine in small-town Alaska. Before that, for two years, in large-town California.

There was a period of years when Dr. Hill was unable to practice, and during those years, there was a husband-and-wife team, Dr. Klatt and Dr. Lund, who lived and worked here. Dr. Hill was then able to return, and he set up practice in several rooms of the house that he built up on the hill. That was the house where he raised his family, and it has been home for Kathryn and me and our family now for the last 50 years

During the 1960s, Whitehall could not support three physicians so Doctors Klatt and Lund moved away. Unfortunately, not long after, Dr. Hill died, leaving the town without a physician. His family had gone so it was just his wife in the big house on the hill. She needed to settle the estate, and that was about the time that we decided to move from Alaska. The Jefferson Valley Development Corporation was organized primarily to recruit a physician for Whitehall. We decided to help them out by moving to Whitehall and establishing a medical practice. At that time, we thought we would stay for only a couple of years to help the Development Corporation establish statistics with which to continue their search. Obviously, that’s not the way it turned out because the “couple of years” have turned into 50 years.

The Jefferson Valley Development Corporation helped us obtain a trailer house for our first “clinic.” It was parked where the present library is, and we practiced medicine there for about a year. During that first year, Cheryl Ryan, who is a nurse, worked for us as our nurse, our secretary, our janitor, our lab assistant, and whatever else had to be done. Meantime the Jefferson Valley Development Corporation helped us to acquire a modular type building that would work not only for our clinic but also for Dennis Sacry’s dental clinic.

This was 1974 and Dennis was just fresh out of dental school. We had originally thought that if the modular building would last 15 years, we would consider ourselves fortunate and could then get a bigger unit. However, we never did leave that first good building. It has become the central portion of our present clinic with five wings added one by one over the years. We consider it now a very adequate medical and dental building. And before we could realize it was happening, I had become the Old Town Doc and, thank goodness, have a solid reputation in southwestern Montana.

By 1985, we were needing some help. Dr. Reiff had finished his medical education and had paid back his Public Health Service loan by working several years in Durrant, Mississippi. We were glad that he wanted to move his family to his wife’s hometown and he wanted to work with me. And indeed, he has been a marvelous partner over the years.

In the 1980s, our son Steven Sacry graduated college with a Pre-Med degree. Then he started his medical education at the University of Washington. He spent a few years teaching in California and in Alaska, then was able to get a degree as a Physician Assistant from Pacific University near Portland, and has been a great addition to our clinic ever since then.

We consider ourselves family medicine providers. So we have geared our practice to be very broad-based. We are more than happy to take care of people with their injuries and illnesses and are glad that we can provide x-ray evaluation, laboratory evaluation, and cardiac evaluation. We can diagnose and treat the many illnesses that arise in families. We have a very good referral network which we use when necessary.

It has been very fulfilling to be able to work and live in the Whitehall community. We thank each of you for your confidence and support, and we look forward to being around for a while yet.