Paul Thomas “Tom” Riley (me) was born in Charleston WV but raised in Richmond VA since age 2. I graduated with High Distinction from the University of Virginia in 1972 and obtained my medical degree in 1976 from the Medical College of Virginia. This was followed by three years of internship and Family Practice residency at Riverside Hospital in Newport News.

I have worked my entire adult life, beginning at age 15 as a swimming pool gate-attendant, followed by two years as a Safeway cashier while attending Douglas Freeman High School. In college I worked one summer digging natural gas service lines for Commonwealth Natural Gas and four summers and winter breaks for Bottled Gas of Virginia, gophering in the warehouse, painting 30,000-gallon tanks and tin roofs, installing and repairing propane tanks, stoves, refrigerators, furnaces, fire logs, pig brooders, and scalders. 0

During college, I earned money playing in jazz bands, during medical school doing preoperative physicals, and during residency moonlighting at the Rappahannock Community Hospital Emergency Room in Kilmarnock.

Following residency, I had a nomadic career working in the Williamsburg Community Hospital Emergency Room, Chesterfield County Health Department, Johnston-Willis Hospital Employee Health, and DuPont before settling on Midlothian Family Practice in January 1984.

While working as a Family Physician, I entered into a two-year venture writing custom software. Clients included the Virginia Council of Churches, the Virginia Academy of Family Practice, a transportation company in Ohio, and a long-term care agent. I have earned money as a professional photographer for weddings, three massive murals (up to 100 feet long), and a two-week cruise in the Baltic Sea. After 23 years of Family Medicine, in 2007, I became Director of Student Health/University Physician at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg VA where I remained until retirement in March 2018, 53 years after my first job.

I think I have earned retirement, but self-doubt creeps in. Though I worry about the loss of my professional identity, a compelling reason to get up every morning, and yes, the paycheck, I feel that there are things I want to do with the remaining time in my life.