Source: Snohomish County Seniors May 2003 edition - Supplement to the Tribune Article by Soren Velice, Staff Writer Snohomish doctor's practice transcends borders Fifty years of performing medical services around the world started in Snohomish for Dr. Leeon Aller, and he's getting ready to celebrate it at the Snohomish Family Clinic. Aller started his medical career in the military; he'd been serving in the Army for four years and was halfway through premed school at the University of Washington when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. His 41st Infantry Division 116th medical battalion was the firsst organized combat unit sent overseas in the war, and he got to work immediately. "When we got into combat, we were taking beachheads, we were taking islands and I was taking correspondence courses," he said. "I spent the better part of my time in the Pacific sending things to the University of Oregon; I still had two years of premed to go." When he got back in November 1945, he married Virginia, his wife of almost 58 years. While Leeon was at war, Virginia had graduated from Western Washington State College (now University) and was teaching when he got back. He had met her while he stationed in Sequim, just before his deployment to the Pacific. He hadn't yet taken his final oral exams, so he went to the university in person to take them. "They did even give me the exam," hs daid. "They just wanted to hear about the war, so I told them and they gave me credit." In 1946, as the UW graduated ist first class of doctors, Aller decided to take the advice of doctors he served with in the war and applied to the University of Pennsylvania, from which he graduated in 1950. His last year there, he was called to active duty as the Korean War began. he was stationed at the George Mead Hospital near Baltimore, then being run entirely by reservists save for one full-time colonel. After that war ended, Aller came to Snohomish and started the Snohomish Family Medical Clinic. "The beginning story of the clinic was I wanted to be a doctor, she wanted to be a teacher, we wanted to do it together," Aller said. "I've built clinics around the world since 1953, and that's when I built the one in Snohomish. "I needed to get into some clinic or start one that would allow me to do mission work and train people for active combat. Dr. Slade wanted to have time off, and I wanted to keep my military abligation to train people, hoping they'd never have to use it. he knew that, and the idea was to have doctors who could cover for each other so their patients woul be comfortable with the others, and we made it mandatory you had to take a year off in rotation so you could go do something else." Aller's next clinic was in rural Ethiopia, where Aller, a surgeon in addition to his general practice, was the only surgeon for 650,000 people in 1973. "My first long trip was to Ethiopia in 1972 to '73," he said. "I was the only surgeon in a privincial hospital, I took care of more spear wounds in civil war there than bayonet wounds in World War II." Aller started another permanent clinic in Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala in 1985; he had been there in 1984, and helped fighters from both sides of that country's civil war get medical help. "We got people there to like the U.S., and we did our work without arms," he said. "We built hospitals and bridges, and evacuated people to the hospital, and they couldn't get in with their guns. "We had them next to each other: farmers and military who had been fighting each other." After retiring from the Army in 1984, Aller returned to Guatemala six months later to start real hospital; the town's clinic helped, but sanitation was a problem. "Dr. Jorge Metilla had a little clinic; he saved a lot of lives, but there were a lot of p[roblems because there was no hospital, so sometimes you had to do a surgery on the same table where you had just delivered a baby by amergency Caesarean or drained an abscess." Virginia also started a school there; she was almost immediately overwhelmed by demand for her teaching skills. "I was teaching the Mayan dialect, the government said I had to teach Spoanish, and everybody wanted to learn English," she said. "Three students who were there in the beginning are now back; they started with me in the primary grades, and got through and went to teacher's college at San Carlos." * * * Dr. Aller is a true friend, and active in the community. He has participated in many vaudeville shows including the annual Mother's Day weekend performances of the Leight Fantastics in which he plays his harmonica as a part of the entertainment menu offered. His Hands For Peacemaking Foundation was formed by Dr. Aller and his wife, Virginia, 1991. For more information about this Rotary clubs of Snohomish County, contact the Hands For Peacemaking Foundation at 425-348-3030. Carroll in Snohomish * * * 30 * * *