For Patrick Jewell, Clarkston has always been a fond memory.
He recently submitted about a dozen photos, taken in the late 1940’s to the Clarkston Community Historical Society. He can’t remember if the photos were taken by him or his father.
‘I think we’re going to have to share the burden,? he said. ‘I was packing a camera at that age also.?
Jewell was born in Detroit in 1934. He spent kindergarten through fifth grade in a big Detroit City School.
‘During the Second World War, my father, my grandfather and I, as I grew a little bit older, became part of the effort to build a house out at Walters Lake, when there weren’t many houses out there,? he said. ‘We built that house on weekends and vacations.?
After the war, Jewell and his family moved from a Detroit ‘dinky apartment to a house in the woods.?
‘I changed from a city boy into a country boy with dogs running all over loose ? totally different life,? he said.
Going from a big city school to a one-room schoolhouse of 30 students, sixth through eighth grade, called Hunter School near Walters Lake, was also quite a change.
Jewell said it was in 1947 at barely 13 years old where he found himself in a little mischief as a freshman at Clarkston High School.
‘I got caught up with another one of my classmates who was not a good influence and we ended up skipping a great portion of freshman year,? he said. ‘I finally got caught and busted. I was able to come and take the exams and do them and get by, but you can’t skip Latin and pass the exam.?
Jewell said it was shortly after being caught skipping, he was invited by teacher and assistant football coach Leigh Bonner for dinner and given some general encouragement. He got him going in the right direction.
‘Mr. Bonner was my favorite teacher and had a substantial influence helping me establish priorities,? he said.
Jewell said he will never forget the face of Head Football Coach, Doc Thayer, when Jewell showed up for freshmen football practice at 118 pounds. Thayer suggested Jewell wait a year before joining the team. That summer, Jewell landed a job doing mason work. He mixed concrete and carried bricks by hand. He did the job every summer for three years.
‘We didn’t have the gyms and the weight rooms like the kids do nowadays, that was my gym and weight room,? he said. ‘It was really hard work, but I was eager to do it because it was helping me physically bulk up.?
Jewell said he was about 190 pounds when he finally left high school.
He was paid $1.50 an hour doing the mason work, which is what the union wage was.
‘There I was 12 or 13 years old and because I was working for somebody I knew, they didn’t make me join the union,? he said. ‘On Friday afternoons they handed me $60 bucks for a 40 hour workweek and I went on my way.?
Jewell had also worked at Lamberton’s Sunoco gas station on Dixie Highway during the school year at night and on the weekends.
‘It was owned by the father of one of my classmates and good friends,? he said. ‘I spent a lot of time down there.?
Jewell said Freshman year was also the year he met his best friend Jim Huttenlocher.
‘We developed a friendship and were best friends during high school. His home was up there at Middle Lake Road. A lot of times because weather was bad or it was too late I would stay there if I couldn’t get home,? he said. ‘His folks were very nice to me, that was my second home growing up.?
Other memories of growing up in Clarkston include skiing at Pine Knob before it was ‘Pine Knob,? playing snooker (a type of billiard game) at lunch, hitch hiking or riding his bike seven miles between school and home and going to Cheesemans Dairy for chocolate milkshakes.
‘We’d get real shakes, they would hardly pour out into the glass they were so thick,? Jewell said. ‘Those were things kids remembered.?
He also recalled being so busy with different organizations that he went to prom without a date senior year.
‘A lot of people found that quite amusing that the class president didn’t have a date for the prom,? he said.
Jewell graduated Clarkston High School in 1951 and went on to do his Undergrad at the University of Detroit Mercy, then onto the University of Michigan school of medicine.
He founded the Dr. Patrick and Susan Horvath Jewell endowed scholarship with preference to Clarkston High School graduates.
Between being a general surgeon and becoming a pediatric surgeon he spent two years as a missionary in Bolivia with his wife and three kids.
‘The surgeon who had been down there as a full-time missionary had been killed in an auto accident,? he said. ‘So there was an opening and I went.?
He also spent time in the medical corps, for the U.S. Navy, and eventually became a professor of pediatric surgery at the University of New Mexico between 1983 and 1994.
While living in a small town between Albuquerque and Santa Fe, called Placitas he and his wife Susan owned a restaurant, which he was actively involved in.
‘It was called the best restaurant in the area by the newspaper,? he said.
He retired from surgery 1994, following replacement of left Achilles tendon and subsequent bilateral knee replacement, which was due to a football injury sustained while playing a game against Troy.
‘I have watched medicine evolve since I started med school in 1954 until now,? he said. ‘When I think back it’s amazing, absolutely amazing.?
In 2000, Jewell moved to a retirement community in Lincoln, Calif. He enjoys gardening, volunteering, traveling, including all seven continents several times and cooking, with a special interest in baking bread, which he considers ‘a challenge.?
‘There are so many variables, it’s a real challenge,? he said. ‘It’s never the same twice.?
In the winter time, he noted he bakes almost every day but gives it away.
‘I don’t eat it,? Jewell said. ‘If I did I’d look like a balloon.?
He also still has a love for photography, and belongs to a vigorous photo club, which puts their photos up in a local coffee shop and sells them.
‘Whatever proceeds I get from the photos,? he said. ‘I simply write a check to the local charity for the same amount.?
Photography goes hand and hand with his traveling.
‘The time, expense, and effort you put into it (traveling,)? he said ‘It’s nice to document it.?
To see and purchase Jewell’s photos check out www.photosbypfjewell.com All proceeds will be donated to local charities.
Since leaving Clarkston in 1954, Jewell said he hopes to return some day.
At age 76 and accomplishing all he has throughout his years, Jewell says, ‘It’s a great life, I’d like more.?