COM Outlook - Winter 2016

8 Nova Southeastern University Interestingly, the Terry Building could have had a different name. Mort’s father was born in Bialystok, Poland, and came to the United States through Ellis Island. Our family name at that time was Tartasky. On Ellis Island, the naturalization officer did not think the name was American enough, so he scratched out Mort’s father’s last name and changed it to Terry. So I suppose the Terry Building could have ended up as the Tartasky Building instead. Mort Terry, who came from very humble beginnings, grew up in the Great Depression and had very little as a child. Eventually, he worked his way through Brooklyn College and was accepted into the Philadelphia College of Osteo- pathic Medicine (PCOM). Back then, there were no student loans, so Mort attended classes during the day and worked as a waiter at night to afford school. Many times, the food he was able to get from the restaurant kitchen was his only meal of the day. When we toured the Health Professions Division campus shortly after it opened in the 1990s, Mort was astounded by the cafeteria, which contained things like sushi and all sorts of fresh foods. He told us one of his favorite stories about how as an intern, one of the few things he felt safe eating in the cafeteria was raisin toast—but quickly changed his opinion after one of the raisins got up and walked away. His first car was a 1929 Chevy with a canvas roof that leaked when it rained. He paid approximately $50 for it, but talked the owner down a few dollars because it had a broken window. It had so little horsepower that one time he could not get it up the steep incline of a mountain. Consequently, he drove it up in reverse because that was the strongest gear. He met a fellow PCOM graduate and nursing supervisor, Geraldine Rafferty, and fell for her. They were married in 1948 and spent their honeymoon in South Florida. They never went back north. While they went on to accom- plish many great things, life was not always easy. Times were tough in the beginning as Mort established his medical prac- tice. Money was tight, and in the early years, my grandparents could often afford only one meal for dinner, so they split it. Things improved for Mort and Gerry during the early 1950s, but they were both appalled by one thing in particular— segregation. At that time, most medical practices and hospi- tals refused to treat patients of color, or maintained separate waiting rooms and treatment areas for anyone who did not look “white enough,” as my grandpa said. In 1953, Mort and Gerry set out to do their part to change things. They opened Magnolia Hospital in Opa-locka, which was one of the first and only hospitals in the area that would treat white and black patients equally. It was a resounding success. Morton and GeraldineTerry: Humble Beginnings Build Unforgettable Legacy By Aaron Terry, J.D., M.B.A., LL.M. MANY PEOPLE walk in and out of the Terry Building every day, but just who exactly was Morton Terry? It was a question my four-year-old daughter (and Mort’s first great-grandchild) Madelyn (Maddie) Terry asked me recently. I had the honor to take her to the Fort Lauderdale/Davie Campus on a recent visit to Florida and share her great-grandfather’s story. It’s a pretty extraordinary tale.