SHARON, Pa. (WKBN) - After 60 years in practice, a well-known physician in the Shenango Valley is retiring.
The walls of Dr. Theodore Yarboro's medical office in Sharon are covered with certificates, licenses and diplomas. After growing up in North Carolina, Yarboro graduated from Meharry Medical College in Nashville in 1963 and decided to come north rather than remain in the south.
"There were not a lot of opportunities for training for minorities," Yarboro said.
After taking an internship at Trumbull Memorial in Warren, Yarboro was accepted into a family practice residency at what was Sharon General Hospital, and opened his practice a year later in 1965.
"The community seemed to be ideal for me, and I liked the small town, so that's why I decided to stay," he said. "I'm satisfied with what I've done. I went into medicine because I wanted to work with people, and that's why I decided to do that, and I've accomplished that."
Throughout his career, Yarboro watched his patients grow from children and young adults to seniors.
"Some of them I even delivered their kids. I delivered babies for about five years," he said.
He even made the occasional house call.
"Only on patients I've taken care of for years."
After all these years, Yarboro thinks the insurance industry has a strong grip on medicine.
"The malpractice insurance is getting high, and that's a problem."
Of his three children, his son Ted Jr. followed in his dad's footsteps. He's an emergency room physician near Atlanta.
As for his own future, Yarboro says he'll spend the next couple of months finishing the billing for his patients and stay active in the community, working with a local group called the "Frontier's Club," which raises scholarship money for minorities.