Mason was the last of the Downtown docs

JERRY PERSON

One of the most important parts of our lives is keeping in good

health. From the day we are born, there is someone looking after our

wellbeing, from our parents, the government and finally our family

doctor.

This week, I’m fulfilling a request from Huntington Beach resident

Laddi R. Frisinger to do a longer column on the last of our town’s

Downtown doctors.

I know we have Downtown doctors and dentists today, but I am

referring to when Huntington Beach was still a small beach town of

approximately 3.2 square miles.

For 46 years, Dr. Bernard Mason practiced medicine from his office

on the corner of 3rd Street and Walnut Avenue.

“Doc” was not a native of Huntington Beach. He was born in New

York on Feb. 20, 1911. His family moved across the river to New

Jersey where Mason received his early education in that state.

After his graduation from high school, he continued his studies at

Penn State where he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1931 and, a year later, his master’s degree. Mason did an 18-month graduate stint at

New York Medical College and at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in New

York City.

In 1936, Mason received the title of doctor when he graduated from

Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. He did his internship

there and at Gorgas Hospital in the U.S. Canal Zone in Panama. While

in Panama, he treated several cases of malaria and the knowledge he

gained would come in handy years later for one of our residents.

Mason left Panama and became a resident surgeon at the Swedish

Hospital in Minneapolis and would attend graduate school in Chicago.

For one year, he was a ship’s surgeon on the Grace Steamship Lines.

In 1939, he opened his practice in Middletown, N.Y., and remained

in practice there for the next three years. When America was plunged

into World War II, Mason joined the U.S. Army where he served in the

Army Air Corps.

In 1943, he coached the backfield on the football team at Brookley

Field in Mobile, Ala., and served as the team’s doctor. He married

and in 1945, he and his wife Elsie became the parents of a son,

Jeffrey.

Mason would remain in the service as a major in the Air Force

after the war ended, and spent the last six months of 1946 in

Australia before leaving the service.

After his discharge from the military in 1946, the family came to

California to live. In no time, they settled in Huntington Beach

where he had a two-story office and apartment constructed at 3rd and

Walnut.

On Oct. 30, 1947, “Doc” opened his office to tend to the medical

needs of our community.

In 1948, he began a 40-year career as physician for Orange Coast

College’s football team. For that dedication, the college named a

field for him and inducted him into its Hall of Fame.

The Masons built their dream house on Main Street, where they

would live for many years.

Longtime resident Ray Walker, a neighbor of the Masons, recalled

when he [Walker] worked for Fluor many years ago. Walker came home

sick one day, and Dr. Mason took a look at him and diagnosed the

symptoms as malaria. I doubt many doctors here in Southern California

would recognize a case of malaria if they saw it.

Walker also told me that Doc charged $3.50 for an office visit,

and $5 if he made a house call.

When Hoag Hospital opened its doors in September 1952, Mason was

one of its original staff physicians. From 1957 to 1958, he served as

chief of staff at the hospital and Walker told me that in one of the

hospital’s hallways are pictures of every chief of staff including

Dr. Mason.

“He was a hell of a nice guy,” Walker told me.

Marianne MacKenzie from the Main Street branch library told me

that the Masons were so supportive of the library’s projects and

could be counted on if needed. Robin Ott, also of the Main Street

library, held the Mason in high regard as a library supporter.

The city honored Mason for his long-term service to his community

by naming him Community Grand Marshal in our 1994 Fourth of July

parade and I watched him as he rode down Main Street that year.

In 1978, Orange Coast College named him their Outstanding Citizen

of the Year.

I learned from Frisinger that you could find Mason on Wednesdays

playing golf at the SeaCliff Country Club, and that she had seen him

on the greens for many years.

As for me, Mason continued to remind me to lay off salt and cut

down on coffee. I have at least followed one of his suggestions, but

I just couldn’t give up popcorn with salt.

I can still see Dr. Mason and his good friend Merritt Nevins

walking together on Main Street on his was to this office nearly

every weekday.

It was on the last day of 1993 that Mason retired and locked his

office for the last time.

Mason lost his wife Elsie about a year ago and I just received

word from Walker that on Jan. 10, we lost a great man, a great friend

and a great doctor. Those whose lives he touched in those 46 years of

dedicated service to the town he loved will sorely miss him.

* JERRY PERSON is a local historian and longtime Huntington Beach

resident. If you have ideas for future columns, write him at P.O. Box

7182, Huntington Beach, CA 92615.