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Patricia Hallinan, MD
Patricia Hallinan was born into a large
family -
five older sisters and two
older brothers had already preceded her into the world of 1916 San
Francisco. She
was the
youngest child by eleven
years, nurtured
and raised
by her mother
- whom Dr. Hallinan has described as a "tremendous
wit". Pat's
father, who had alternately been a
street car
conductor and a teamster, provided for the family
economically, but
"was never
involved much with the children".
Dr. Hallinan has described herself
as a girl that was overweight and "a mouse" - frightened to
death of men and
boys. Yet, she was
also a girl
that loved to play the
piano. She even at one time
considered a career as a concert pianist.
Pat was to
be a serious piano student
all the way through college. Patricia
was educated by nuns in Catholic girls schools.
She remembers most vividly her
English studies under the tutelage of
Presentation nuns at Saint Agnes School.
The education she received there was so strong
that she scored among
the highest in English on
her college preparatory exams. Her
high score is not
surprising, as Dr. Hallinan
has mentioned
that her mother was
"Gung Ho!" for education and thus
received tremendous support for
learning at home.
She received other types of support from her home, too.
Of all of the family members, her older
brother Vincent (he was twenty years her senior) was her closest
sibling. He was devoted to
his family, in fact,
when he won his
first case as a
lawyer, he used the money
he earned to "buy a
flat" for his widowed mother and younger brothers and sisters.
He also paid to have
the flat furnished. He
encouraged his
siblings to
prepare for the
professions, and even paid for
Patricia's college education all
the way through medical school.
"He was my goad [and he] was my inspiration," she has
claimed. When
she found
that she was unhappy in
undergraduate school at the University of California at San
Francisco, Vincent arranged
for her to have an interview with Ray Lyman Wilbur, head of Stanford
University. By
the end of the interview,
Patricia was enrolled in Stanford, where she was to stay until her medical training was
completed.
It was during graduate school that Patricia
says she began to develop
her ability to stand up for herself, "scrappiness" as she
called it. Perhaps that is
because there were sixty men in her class and only
five women; perhaps because these five women were among the first to be
admitted to Stanford
University's medical program; and/or,
perhaps because the
classes were difficult and she strove for academic achievement.
Dr. Hallinan
has mentioned
that she
encountered her
first discrimination (aimed against her because she was a woman)
during her medical
studies. A
physiology professor was
very discouraging to
her, yet
she needed
to pass the physiology
requirements. In order to
complete the physiology training, she
had to fly to
the only other place
where it was offered - the University of Minnesota.
Luckily, not
only did
she pass the course with
flying colors, her U of M professor at the turned out to be the author
of the
physiology textbook
used at Stanford.
Later, she was denied the study of Urology because it encompassed
studying both the female and male bodies in
depth, including the male reproductive organs.
Not to be stopped in her quest to be a well-educated doctor,
Patricia arranged to be
privately tutored by one of the world's most eminent urologists.
Yet despite these obstacles, Patricia loved learning
medicine, and
has described medical school as
one of the most rewarding periods of her life.
Upon completion of school, she was ready to
begin her internship at a
local hospital.
She wanted to intern at
San Francisco General Hospital to receive
the broadest exposure
to medicine possible, to
ensure that
she could
develop into
the most competent doctor
possible. She was
informed, however, that
all of the
females in
her class had been
assigned internships at Children's
Hospital. Patricia was
not happy
with this exclusion, and
approached the head of the intern program at S.F. General
directly about the matter. After
success in gaining an internship
at S.F.
General, she
began her studies under
the direction of Dr. John Mansfield.
Dr. Mansfield
was to
be an important medical
tutor; he
even gave
Patricia her
first microscope. When
she completed
her internship. The Chief of
Medicine at S.F. General awarded
her the first residency granted in twenty years to the
"Stanford side".
Also after her internship was completed,
Patricia decided to marry
a man she
had met at Stanford
Medical School. But her marriage did not stop her
from continuing
to prepare
for her medical career
(an unusual
decision for
the 1930's).
She continued her residency work while pregnant, and
completed it while mothering a small child.
Again needed support arrived from her home.
Her mother and two oldest sisters took
turns caring for her children.
Eventually, Pat and
her husband were to have six boys, though one
premature son
died shortly
after birth.
She entered
into private
practice as a cardiologist, with her offices located in San
Francisco. Her medical
prospered for over six years. But,
the demands of managing a large family finally took their toll on
Pat - the needs of a busy
cardiology practice often conflicted with the needs of her loved ones.
Her compromise was to
close her
practice and instead find a medical career "with
steadier hours.
Dr. Hallinan
became the Director for Employees
Health Service for the American Red Cross Regional Office in San
Francisco, a position she held for four years. Later,
Dr. Hallinan
worked for
Marin County as the
Assistant Health Officer. Upon
assuming these duties. Pat and her family moved
to Marin, settling in Ross.
Again, Vincent Halinan purchased a house for them, just
as he was to
purchase a house for all of his brothers and sisters.
As Assistant Health Officer, Pat's responsibilities were diverse. She
served as head of crippled children's services,
and she made referrals on behalf
of mentally retarded children. She
was also in charge of both tuberculosis
cases and the
control of (some) venereal
diseases programs.
Slowly, Patricia
found herself becoming involved with cases of child abuse - the
beginning of a life-long
advocacy. She
would often testify in court on behalf of the battered child only
to see the judge return
the child to the abusing parents simply because she had not
actually witnessed the abuse. (She
had only seen
the resulting bruises and
broken bones.)
She became an active lobbyist for
the laws regarding children and their right to a life free
from physical, emotional and mental
abuse. She consulted
with Assemblyman Leo Ryan
on specific legislation. Her
frustration over
the occurrence of child
abuse continues to this day. Pat
exclaims, "Children are still second class
citizens....Child abuse
is a social evil. It's poverty, loneliness
and despair, and until these things are corrected I think children
will still be
abused". Dr. Hallinan established the battered child program in
the county's Department of Health.
After seven years of employment with the
Marin County Health
Office, Pat transferred to a position with the
County's Agency for Infant Development (A.I.D.).
As the A.I.D. physician. Pat cared for children
ranging in age from newborn infants to three years old who were
developmentally disabled or who suffered
from birth defects. In her
work, she not only addressed the physical needs of her patients,
she also
supported the
highly-stressed parents of these children.
Through education and counseling, the potential abuse of these
children was often thwarted.
During this time. Dr. Hallinan was also
very active in community service.
She served on the medical advisory board to the local March of Dimes.
She received
the March
of Dimes
Award for Meritorious Service
in recognition of her
contributions. Other
advisory boards on which she served were the Respite Home for the
Retarded, Marin
Home Care,
and the
Marin Hearing and Speech Center.
She was appointed by President
Reagan to serve on the Citizen's
Committee on Welfare Reform. Pat
has been listed in Who's Who in California
and Who's Who of Women in America.
In the later Spring of 1988, an advancing liver cancer forced Dr.
Hallinan to retire from her work with
A.I.D./Easter Seals. Her
sixteen years with that
agency left
a legacy
of caring and excellence.
Of her
lifelong accomplishments. Dr. Patricia
Hallinan is the most proud of her five sons and
her career as a
doctor. "Women need to
have something of their own," she stated. She has loved having
the knowledge and ability to cure
people. Looking back
over her
many years,
she smiled saying "I have lived a full life with few
regrets".
Three
months after the Marin Women's
Hall of Fame Celebration,
Dr. Patricia Hallinan succumbed to cancer in June, 1988.
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