Chuck Gottlich (Figure 1) was born in Dallas, Texas, on October 6, 1944. After graduating from Tulane University in 1966, he attended the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School and graduated with the class of 1970. The University of California at San Francisco is where he finished his medical internship and first year of residency. After being in the US Air Force for a period of 2 years, he did a second year of medical residency the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School beginning in July 1974 and completed his cardiology fellowship there in June 1977. Since that time, he has been practicing cardiology at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas (BUMC). He has taught many medical houseofficers and cardiologists in training. Over almost two decades, he also taught houseofficers and cardiologists in the coronary care unit at Parkland Hospital. Dr. Gottlich is one of the good guys and a pleasure to be around. He and his lovely wife, Honey, are the parents of two very successful offspring.
Figure 1.
Dr. Chuck Gottlich during the interview.
William Clifford Roberts, MD (hereafter, Roberts): Charles, to start, could you talk about your family, your mother and father, and your siblings?
Charles Morton Gottlich, MD (hereafter, Gottlich): I was born in Dallas at Florence Nightingale Hospital, a part of BUMC. I am the oldest child of three. I have two younger brothers.
Roberts: What is your mother's name?
Gottlich: Sylvia Rolnick. She was not given a middle name but picked one—Ellen. She was the oldest of two girls and was born in Houston on May 21, 1918.
Roberts: What is your father's full name?
Gottlich: Arthur Paul Gottlich. He was born on November 8, 1913. My father was an only child, born in Chicago, Illinois, and spent his first 6 years in Edgewood, Texas, about 70 miles east of Dallas. In Edgewood, he was known as “Arthur Paul.” My father moved to Dallas when he was about 6 years old and went to Forest Avenue High School, Southern Methodist University, and then Baylor Medical School. He was one of the early members of Temple Emanuel at Hillcrest and Northwest Highway. My mother and father were married on March 28, 1940 (Figure 2).
Figure 2.
The wedding of Arthur and Sylvia Gottlich in 1940. Left to right: Gus, Lilly, and Kitty Rolnick, Sylvia and Arthur Gottlich, Sadie and Walter Gottlich.
Roberts: Who are your brothers?
Gottlich: Henry “Hank” Eric Gottlich, born on March 26, 1947, and Glenn Sigmond Gottlich, born on July 28, 1952 (Figures 3 and 4).
Figure 3.
The Gottlich family in 1953. Back row: Arthur and Sylvia. Front row: Chuck, Hank, and Glenn.
Figure 4.
The Gottlich men at Scott's wedding, 2005. Back row: Glenn, Travis Chuck, Scott, and Hank. Front row: Alec.
Roberts: Did they have large families?
Gottlich: No. Hank lives in Annapolis, Maryland, and has been a high school science teacher for over 40 years. When he finished high school in Dallas, he went to Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, and stayed east. He has two children, Kendra (1974) and Travis (1977).
Roberts: What about Glenn?
Gottlich: Glenn lives here in Dallas and is in the jewelry business. He worked at Zales, as a manager of Corrigan's (North-park), and then at Bachendorf's. For the last 15 or so years he has been on his own. He has two children, Alec (1995) and Nicole (1997).
Roberts: What was it like growing up in Dallas, Texas? Where did you live?
Gottlich: Until I was about 8 years old we lived on Potomac, near what was then the railroad track. Now it is the Dallas North Tollway. In 1952, my family moved to Greenway Parks, which is enclosed by University, Mockingbird, the toll road, and Inwood.
Roberts: What was the address?
Gottlich: 5349 Drane Drive. I went to Longfellow Elementary School, located near the Inwood Theater. I recall walking to school with my friends and picking up pecans along the way, because they were everywhere. My grandmother also lived in that area. I often stopped to visit with my grandparents on my way home from school. I went to Rusk Junior High School and then to Thomas Jefferson High School through my junior year. In 1961 my father and mother decided to move all of the boys to St. Mark's School of Texas. I attended there as a senior. My brothers went to St. Mark's from 1961 through the twelfth grade. That same year we moved to the house on Stonecrest, north of LBJ Freeway. I'm unclear why my parents moved out there at that time.
Roberts: Did you find St. Mark's more difficult than Thomas Jefferson?
Gottlich: I'm not sure “difficult” is the right word. It was an entirely different experience. I enjoyed both schools. I had close friends all through my elementary and junior high school days: Mike Collins (related to Collins Hospital), Tommy and Bobby Neuhoff, John Stemmons Jr., and Ross Young. Several of us drove to high school together. At Thomas Jefferson the classes were large, and the mix of people was much more diverse. At St. Mark's, the classes were small, and there were more academic and social pressures. It was a different milieu at each school. I didn't feel uncomfortable in either situation and quickly made friends. I developed better academically at St. Mark's than I had at Thomas Jefferson.
Roberts: Did studies come easy for you?
Gottlich: I had to work fairly hard, but studying never felt like a chore to me.
Roberts: What was it like growing up in your house? What was your mother like?
Gottlich: My family was very close. Although my father was a physician and often not home, we tried to get together every night as a family for dinner. My mother did not have a formal vocation, but she was a wonderful mother and homemaker. She loved to cook and interact with her children. My parents had a group of close friends and would entertain and were entertained frequently. As a matter of fact, even to this day when I see my parents' friends they refer to me as “Chucky.” I have patients today who were friends of my parents. It's nostalgic to see them and the memories it brings back about my parents.
Roberts: Were you and your brothers close to your father? How was that relationship?
Gottlich: We were close. There is an 8-year age difference between my youngest brother and me. My father was a warm, extremely knowledgeable, positive-oriented person, very good at logic, artistic, and extremely good with his hands. He was one of the first gynecologists in Dallas. He was a wonderful teacher. He was one of the two most important people in my medical life.
Roberts: You mentioned that your family always tried to get together for the evening meal. What was that like? What topics did you talk about?
Gottlich: It centered around the lives of the three kids, what they were doing and thinking. Occasionally, my father spoke of his practice. When we moved to the Stonecrest house, the bedroom that I had was off at one end of the house, and the rest of the family was on the other end. Thus, I had some autonomy. When at Southwestern Medical School, I lived at home and was able to do that because I had almost a separate apartment.
Roberts: What were some of your activities growing up? Were you an athlete? Did you play any team sports?
Gottlich: I played front yard baseball, football, and basketball. In junior high school I played some football and baseball. At Thomas Jefferson I played on the golf team. When I went to St. Mark's, I played on the football team.
Roberts: What position did you play?
Gottlich: Middle linebacker. I did get to play some, so it was a good experience. My number was 33; I don't believe that they retired my number after my departure.
Roberts: You were a walk-on as a senior?
Gottlich: Yes, but the school was small. There were only 30 or so students in my graduating class.
Roberts: How many would have been in your graduating class at Thomas Jefferson?
Gottlich: Hundreds; I don't know the exact number. I knew everyone in my class at St. Mark's but only a fraction at Thomas Jefferson.
Roberts: Where there any teachers in elementary, junior high, or high school who had a particular impact on you?
Gottlich: Yes, but most all of them were in my senior year. The teachers at St. Mark's were stimulating! I am very glad to have had the opportunity to attend St. Mark's.
Roberts: When growing up, did you and your family go on many vacations?
Gottlich: We went on vacations once a year, usually by car and sometimes with another family who were friends of my parents.
Roberts: Where did you go?
Gottlich: Primarily to Florida, Colorado, Washington, DC, and New York.
Roberts: How long were most of your vacations?
Gottlich: Usually 7 to 10 days.
Roberts: Did your father deliver a lot of babies?
Gottlich: No. My understanding is that he did obstetrics for a year and then my mother insisted that he concentrate only on gynecology. This was to keep the hours a little more predictable for our family. At that time almost everyone was in solo practice. He first officed at the Medical Arts Building. He opened his own office with Sol Katz, an internist, in a building that used to be near the corner of Gaston and Washington Avenues. He officed there for over 50 years! My father was in the army and tried to volunteer during World War II but he couldn't fit into any of the combat clothes because he was short and they wouldn't let him go overseas.
Roberts: What was your father's height?
Gottlich: Five feet.
Roberts: How tall are you?
Gottlich: I think 5 feet 3 inches.
Roberts: How tall was your mother?
Gottlich: Probably 4 feet 10 inches. I'm the tallest in my immediate family. When my father operated, he stood on crates. He did a lot of operating.
Roberts: Are either of your parents living?
Gottlich: No. My mother got ill in 1974. She developed hip pain, which proved to be a bone metastasis from adenocarcinoma of the lung. I was in the Air Force at that time and transferred to Carswell Air Force Base in Fort Worth to be near my mother and father. My mother died in January 1975, 6 months before my son was born. My father died in December 1992.
I was fortunate to have known all of my grandparents. My maternal grandparents lived near Preston Road and Northwest Highway. My mother's father, Gus Rolnick, worked at Resistol Hat Corporation until he was in his 70s. The company was located in Garland and was one of the largest hat makers during that period. I worked in the warehouse there during the summers and learned a bit about hats. Lilly Rolnick died in her mid-60s, the first grandparent that I lost, and Gus Rolnick went when I was a freshman in college.
Before moving to Dallas, my paternal grandparents lived about 70 miles east in Van Zandt county. My father's dad, Walter Gottlich, made suitcases (Figure 5) but had retired by the time I knew him. Walter had two brothers and a sister. His brothers never married, and his sister married and had one child. My father had one first cousin (Mel Rose) just as I have one first cousin (Emily Robins). Walter Gottlich passed away when I was a senior in high school. My grandmother, Sadie Gottlich, helped me “spot” papers when I delivered the Dallas Times Herald as a teenager and made the best coconut cake in the world. She lived into her late 80s and knew my wife and children.
Figure 5.
Brochure from Walter Gottlich & Co., early 1900s.
Roberts: Did you get together as a family fairly often?
Gottlich: We did. As children, we visited my grandparents all the time.
Roberts: How did your father do after your mother died?
Gottlich: He did as well as anyone could do in that situation. Luckily, he had a good support system with all of us who lived in town. In the late 1980s, he married Pat, whom we consider a member of our family. We get together as a family most Sundays with my brother, Glenn, his wife, Roxanne, their two children, my stepmother, Pat, and my two children and their spouses, who both also live in Dallas with their children (Ryan and Lindsay, born January 2005, and Fox, born September 2006). My wife is the matriarch, and I think she learned that from my mother. Sometimes it's hard to get everyone together, but we seem to find a way (Figure 6).
Figure 6.
With all the Gottliches, 1991. Back row: Glenn and Roxanne, Honey and Chuck, Merel and Hank. Middle row: Scott and Stephanie, Kendra and Travis. Front row: Arthur and Pat.
Roberts: Would you summarize your growing up period as a very happy one?
Gottlich: My entire life has been happy. I can't imagine anyone with more opportunities than I've had. It's just been a pleasure to live.
Roberts: How did you decide to go to Tulane for college?
Gottlich: I knew I wanted to leave Texas. Most of my friends went to Texas or Oklahoma. Tulane was more of a life experience than an academic experience. I joined one of the fraternities, which were very popular at that time, and lived in a dorm. I still have several close friends from college. I took my junior year in Bangor in the northwest part of Wales. Most of Wales is coal mining, but North Wales is mostly dairy farming. It was a good experience.
Roberts: What was your major in college?
Gottlich: Zoology. I received a bachelor of science degree (Figure 7). I tried to be as diverse as I could in my subject matter, realizing early that I wanted to be a physician. I took subjects that I wouldn't have to duplicate again, to become better rounded.
Figure 7.
At his graduation from Tulane, 1966.
Roberts: When did you know that you wanted to be a physician?
Gottlich: Very early in life.
Roberts: Was your father the first physician in your family?
Gottlich: Yes. I'm not sure how he made that decision, but my guess is my grandmother Sadie was a very strong influence.
Roberts: Was she a pretty dominating lady?
Gottlich: She was strong minded and strong in character.
Roberts: I suppose your father always spoke positively about medicine?
Gottlich: Neither my father nor my mother ever pushed me into medicine. My father loved taking care of people. He gave up surgery a long time before he gave up taking care of his patients. He did, as I do, thoroughly enjoy the rapport with patients. It is extremely gratifying to take care of and help people.
Roberts: In New Orleans, did you have any professors who had a particular influence on you?
Gottlich: There was nothing at Tulane that I couldn't have done without.
Roberts: I presume you made good grades at Tulane?
Gottlich: To answer, let me first relate to you that my wife is an academic language therapist and has taught me about “learning differences.” I don't recall having heard of “dyslexia” when I was growing up. I had to study a lot, but if I did I fared pretty well. My English teacher at St. Mark's told me that he was worried about me. He said that if I didn't learn how to write he was afraid I would be a “slide rule.” Writing has always been a little difficult for me. I can read but it's a chore. I don't read often for pleasure. Possibly the extra time that I had to spend studying or reading allowed me to actually learn and understand the material thoroughly.
Roberts: Do you read relatively fast or slow?
Gottlich: When I read the newspaper, I read the parts my eyes go to, which means I usually don't read the full article. When reading medical journals I consciously read every word; otherwise, I'm too impatient and would skip to the end.
Roberts: How did you come out in your graduating class at Tulane?
Gottlich: I don't think they ranked us. I did well, but I wasn't a straight-A student.
Roberts: I understand that your father thought you should look at Southwestern Medical School.
Gottlich: My father had done most of his formal education in the Dallas area. I applied to Johns Hopkins, but I was not accepted. When Southwestern became available, I made that decision without much thought.
Roberts: You were ready to come back to Dallas?
Gottlich: Not really. I didn't need to come home, but there was no aversion for me to come home either. Going to Southwestern was probably the most important decision I made. It was a life-changing event.
Roberts: You entered Southwestern in 1966? How many were in your class?
Gottlich: About 100.
Roberts: Were there any surprises at medical school early on?
Gottlich: I can't recall having formulated any opinions before I went. From the time that I started there, I knew it was what I wanted to do.
Roberts: Did you ever go to your father's office?
Gottlich: Yes, even when I was a child. I made rounds with him on occasion.
Roberts: Did you ever watch him in the operating room?
Gottlich: No. During two summers I did research (microbiology, genetics). One summer I worked as a scrub nurse at Gaston Hospital. I worked in the operating room with some physician friends of my father.
Roberts: Did you like operating?
Gottlich: Yes, but it was not what I wanted to do.
Roberts: In medical school did you find it easy to migrate to internal medicine?
Gottlich: Yes. I knew that I wasn't going to do surgery or pediatrics from early on. I knew pretty well that I was bound for internal medicine.
Roberts: There was no pressure from your father to do obstetrics-gynecology?
Gottlich: I don't recall any pressure from my parents even to be in medicine. My parents wanted their children to be successful, meaning happy, in whatever vocation they chose.
Roberts: Were there a lot of books around your house growing up?
Gottlich: A fair amount. My parents were not big readers, but they did read a fair amount.
Roberts: Did your father or mother have any hobbies?
Gottlich: Not particularly. My mother was a good mother and a good wife. My father had some artistic capabilities. He could draw well enough to create medical drawings to rival Netter's anatomic sketches, at least to my eye. He played tennis and golf. They both played bridge a lot with their friends and were wonderful dancers. My father did a lot of things with his hands.
Roberts: You mentioned in high school at Thomas Jefferson that you played on the golf team. What was your handicap?
Gottlich: It was not very good. I also played on the tennis team. In junior high school I played in the city league events.
Roberts: Do you still play tennis?
Gottlich: No. I do play golf, and I'm about as good now as I was then, which is not good.
Roberts: How often do you play golf?
Gottlich: If the weather is nice, I play every weekend.
Roberts: Does that mean every Saturday and Sunday?
Gottlich: Saturday and occasionally on Sunday. I stopped playing golf about 1970 when I finished medical school and didn't take it up again until about 1988, when my children were about 13 years old. I joined up with the same group that I had played with in high school. I've been playing golf with these guys for over 50 years.
Roberts: Could you beat your father in golf?
Gottlich: Yes.
Roberts: Were there any professors in medical school who had an impact on you?
Gottlich: Yes. Next to my father, the most important person in my vocational life was Donald Seldin. There were many others who are remembered, but none changed my life more than my father and Donald Seldin.
Roberts: What were the particular attributes of Seldin that impressed you the most?
Gottlich: A combination of the right time for me and a vocation that I fit with. He made me want to be the best physician that I could be. When I left medical school, I wanted to be the best internist in the world.
Roberts: That's the nicest thing that you could say about someone! You worked pretty hard in medical school?
Gottlich: Things don't come very easy for me, but work related to medicine is not hard even if it takes time. I found that if I was interested in something I excelled. I love medicine; therefore, it was a perfect fit for me. Work can be very hard if it is something that you don't like doing. I feel that it is important to have work that is challenging and rewarding. For me, medicine has fulfilled both of these criteria. I enjoyed medical school immensely.
Roberts: How long did it take you to commute from your home to medical school?
Gottlich: Twenty minutes.
Roberts: You did well in medical school? You got a spectacular internship—the University of California at San Francisco, one of the very best internships in the world. When it came time to pick an internship, how did this come about?
Gottlich: I applied to Southwestern (Dallas), Johns Hopkins (Baltimore), Beth Israel (Boston), and University of California (San Francisco). Those institutions had wonderful reputations. I never went to San Francisco to interview. I actually feared that California would provide too many diversions. When I ranked them, I put California third. I didn't get into the Eastern schools but did get into California. There were two of us there from Southwestern: Rick Myers and me. His wife, Mary, was from Southern California and a schoolteacher, and she introduced me to my future wife.
Roberts: Holly Smith was head of medicine when you were there?
Gottlich: Yes.
Roberts: Tell me about Holly Smith. I never met him, but everyone who ever trained under him was apparently enormously impressed by him.
Gottlich: He was very formal. When I first arrived, there were 13 interns, and we were arranged alphabetically. We went to three different hospitals: the University of California Hospital (Moffitt), San Francisco General, and the Veterans Administration Hospital. We spent about a third of our time at each of the three hospitals. For the first 2 years, each houseofficer rotated to those three hospitals. I knew the houseofficers whose last names were close to “G,” but none of the “Z's” and only a few of the “S's.” When I got to the University of California at San Francisco, everyone had other talents besides just wanting to be the best physician. One played in a city symphony, and another spoke nine languages. It was a wonderful experience. But it was not Southwestern! I felt if one didn't spend time at Southwestern, either in medical school or during housestaff training, one missed out on one of the most important experiences in medicine in our lifetime.
Roberts: Holly Smith was from Charleston, South Carolina, I believe. When you say he was very formal, what do you mean by that?
Gottlich: His contact with the housestaff there wasn't the memorable part. The memorable part was my peer group. They were the ones I learned from, learned for, and learned with.
Roberts: You interned and did your first year of residency in San Francisco and then came back to Dallas?
Gottlich: I went into the Air Force after those 2 years in San Francisco. When my mother got ill, I returned to Dallas. Before her illness I had decided not to return to Dallas. I had decided that I wasn't going to finish even my residency. When in the Air Force I was a general medical officer and decided that I wasn't going back to play the “academic game.” I saw patients every 15 minutes and loved trying to solve their medical problems. I decided that I was going to go to Flagstaff, Arizona, and open my own office. The reason I picked Flagstaff was because I had driven through there on the trips to and from California several times and always thought it was a wonderful place. My wife and I wrote to the Chamber of Commerce in Flagstaff and told them I was almost finished with the military service and was looking to be an internist in the area and could they give me some directions and/or contacts. They mailed me one page of the yellow pages! I went there to look, and when I got home from that trip I had the call about my mother. I then decided that I really did need to go home and finish my training.
Roberts: How did you decide on cardiology?
Gottlich: I decided early that if I did a subspecialty it was not going to be cardiology. When I was in medical school, cardiology wasn't particularly strong, but as a resident it appealed to me and I changed my mind.
Roberts: Did you enjoy your cardiology fellowship (1975–1977)? Was James Willerson there then?
Gottlich: Yes. He was a strong influence at that time, but Charles Mullins was the chief of the cardiology division.
Roberts: When you were in medical school, who were your classmates that may still be around at BUMC?
Gottlich: Buddy Hurst, David Luterman, and Chet Byers. For at least 15 years after finishing the cardiology fellowship, I rounded in the coronary care unit at Parkland Hospital on Thursdays. I loved it. When John Rutherford came to Southwestern, the services were restructured, and I could no longer participate in the Parkland Hospital teaching programs because of time conflicts. Through that experience, I met many physicians who subsequently have come to practice at BUMC.
Roberts: When you finished your cardiology training, how did it come about that you came to BUMC?
Gottlich: I had decided that even though I was trained in interventional cardiology, which was only diagnostic cardiac catheterization at that time, I didn't want to do cardiac catheterizations. I was afraid I would end up doing only that. I knew it would be difficult for me to be in solo practice. I needed to be in a group so that I would have access to the parts of cardiology that didn't suit me. I looked at Presbyterian Hospital and talked to Robert North, then head of cardiology. I didn't want to be in a group with both internists and cardiologists. I felt that for me to know everything about cardiology, I had to focus exclusively on that subspecialty. I had rekindled a relationship with Mike Donsky when I was in my last year of residency and as a cardiology fellow. Subsequently, he had joined with Jack Hyland at BUMC. Jack Hyland offered me a job and I took it (Figure 8). At that time I could do exactly what I wanted to do. I didn't have to do the catheterization procedures.
Figure 8.
The Gottlich family in 1977, as Chuck joined HeartPlace.
Roberts: You didn't do them at all?
Gottlich: I did some of the other invasive procedures like pericardiocentesis. I wasn't particularly interested in echocardiography initially, but that interest developed. I wanted to see patients and figure out what was wrong and then help them.
Roberts: You rapidly took to echocardiography?
Gottlich: I was hired to do that. Jack Hyland hired three of us the same year: me to focus on echocardiography and stress testing; Walter Berman to develop cardiac rehabilitation; and Jim Shelton to develop nuclear cardiology. These were blossoming areas at that time. Jim Shelton and I had been high school classmates. I had not known Walter Berman, but he and I became best friends (Figure 9). Jim still practices at Baylor, and unfortunately Walter passed away in 1999.
Figure 9.
With Walter Berman, 1998.
Roberts: Do you remember any surprises when you first went into private practice?
Gottlich: Most of my surprises were related to physician behavior. My father had a lot of principles and character, and he grew up in a different era of medicine when there was a focus on etiquette among physicians. Physicians were wary of losing patients. I always felt the need to talk to the physicians I was dealing with. I found that some physicians were “different” sometimes. I had trained with physicians from the Veterans Affairs system, from private hospitals, and from city-county hospitals and sometimes noticed that physicians, when moving from one milieu to another, were “different.” I never could have imagined that everyone would not be the same in all patient settings. That was the biggest surprise. Not much else that I can recall surprised me.
Roberts: What kind of hours did you have during those first 10 years of private practice? What time would you wake up in the morning?
Gottlich: I was with a group of passionate cardiologists, each with their own personalities, talents, and weaknesses, but they all worked hard. Excluding Jack Hyland, who was older, most all of us were there early (by 7:30 am), worked 6 days a week, and also rounded on Sundays. There were no middle-of-the-night coronary angioplasties at that time. That started in the 1980s. The cath lab was not even open on weekends and nights. For the first 10 years it was “real” cardiology.
Roberts: What time do you wake up in the morning?
Gottlich: A little bit before 6:00 am. At those times I got home at 9:00 or 10:00 pm. I think the reason my children are not physicians might be because of my lateness and/or absences. I couldn't do like my father did: go home and then go back to the hospital. I couldn't do that. I had to finish and then go home (Figure 10).
Figure 10.
Scott, Stephanie, Chuck, and Honey in the mid 1990s.
Roberts: What about night call?
Gottlich: Every third night or so we took night call. There were seven of us when I first started. The big change came when procedures started to be done at night. Some cardiologists did procedures and some did not. Ever since I've been at BUMC, a fellowship program has been in existence. The fellows helped with seeing patients during the night. Some staff cardiologists let the fellows do a great deal; others had to be there every minute. For me, it was difficult not to be actively involved. About 10 years ago, I quit night call because without doing procedures I did not contribute enough.
Roberts: How much time do you take off a year?
Gottlich: Until recently, I would go to a meeting for a week and take a couple of weeks off with my family. Probably 4 weeks a year.
Roberts: Tell me about your wife.
Gottlich: My wife is Honey Foster. She was born on May 14, 1948, in New York City. Her father owned a neighborhood grocery, and they lived in the Bronx. She is the oldest of three girls. She has the same age difference with her sisters as I do with my brothers: Merrie is 3 years younger, and Hope is 9 years younger. When Honey finished high school, her father closed his neighborhood deli in New York and moved the family to San Francisco, where her mother had an older sister. Honey went to San Francisco State University, academically a very stimulating place for English and education majors. San Francisco State University was the center of a lot of activity in the late 1960s. It was on the news almost nightly for a period of time. She got her degree in English and certification to teach kindergarten through ninth grade. She was teaching in the public school system on Fillmore Street when we met.
Roberts: How did you meet?
Gottlich: We met on a blind date set up by Rick Myers' wife.
Roberts: What were the features of Honey that attracted you to her?
Gottlich: She “felt good.” We had a lot of things in common: the same family values, vocations that made each of us feel worthwhile, and the same religion. Honey (Lynn) had never been to Texas, even though she had a double name. Her maternal grandmother, Ida, however, was from Texas, near Beaumont. She had come over as a Russian immigrant when she was very young. She married a sailor from New York, and that led the family to New York. When she got pregnant with her first child, she came back home to Beaumont to have the baby. When the baby was old enough, she went back to New York.
Roberts: Do you remember the day you met?
Gottlich: Not the exact calendar day but I do remember I wore a purple shirt and wire-rimmed glasses. We went to eat dinner at Trader Vic's. The Golden Mirror, however, became “our” restaurant in San Francisco.
Roberts: When did you get married?
Gottlich: December 26, 1971 (Figure 11).
Figure 11.
Chuck and Honey's wedding, December 26, 1971, with Paul and Joan Foster and Sylvia and Arthur Gottlich.
Roberts: Tell me about your children.
Gottlich: When I was a resident back in Dallas (1975), we had our first child. Honey was pregnant before we came back, but we lost that first child through miscarriage. She was going to teach at Lamp-lighter then but gave up her position when she was pregnant. She later volunteered at Lamplighter, where she worked under Jill Smith to help students who had special needs to achieve their reading potential. Jill Smith was a leader in this area, and Honey teamed up with her. In the 1990s Honey trained with Jamie Williams at Southern Methodist University's Program for Dyslexia Training. This 2-year program resulted in certification as an academic language therapist. We had our first child in June 1975, Scott Aaron. Our son was early and stayed in the intensive care unit for about a month. Fourteen months later we had a daughter, Stephanie Ann, born on August 19, 1976.
Roberts: What do they do?
Gottlich: Scott has a restaurant, Bijoux. Scott went to St. Mark's and was on the wrestling team, which won the Texas high school championship for three consecutive years. Our daughter went to Hockaday through the tenth grade and then transferred to the arts magnet for dance, Booker T. Washington. She remained interested in dance and later went to the University of Georgia because of its excellent dance department. She has subsequently received her master's degree in education with emphasis in gifted and talented. Most recently, Stephanie completed certification as an educational diagnostician. She married Steven Shiller in 2002 (Figure 12) and then in 2005 had twins—a boy and a girl (Figure 13). When she was 18 months old, my daughter became ill with a virus, which resulted in kidney damage. In March 2009 she had a kidney transplant. We have enjoyed our children.
Figure 12.
Steven and Stephanie Shiller, March 9, 2002.
Figure 13.
Lindsay Ashleigh and Ryan Hugo Shiller, 2008.
Roberts: Is she doing well?
Gottlich: As well as one can expect. She is recovering very well. The whole process is an emotional experience, which is amazing at the same time. She is the strongest one in the family. Fortunately for her, she didn't have to be on dialysis before the surgery.
Roberts: How did Scott become a chef?
Gottlich: He wanted an academic college where he could wrestle. Initially, he went to Syracuse, which turned out to be a mistake because it's a hard place to be and the wrestling wasn't what he thought it would be. He was there for 2 years. He transferred to the University of Oklahoma, a striking facility. He was there 3 years and he wrestled while getting a history degree. He then considered either law school or culinary school; he chose culinary school. There are two major culinary schools: the Culinary Institute of America, the main office of which is in New York, and Johnson and Wales, whose main office is in Providence, Rhode Island. They are 2-year programs and provide a culinary arts degree. Because he already had his bachelor's degree, he didn't want a 2-year course. Johnson and Wales had a 13-month culinary-restaurant management and cooking program in Vail, Colorado. He went to Vail. Afterwards, he went to Newport Beach to a restaurant called Aubergine, meaning eggplant in French. He was there for about a year and then decided that he didn't want to be trained only in one area of the country. So he went to New York City and got a job at Le Bernardin, a seafood restaurant, in 2001. He then went back to California for another stint to the previous restaurant as the executive sous chef. Then he moved back to Dallas and worked at Lola's. Within 3 or 4 months he became the executive chef. He was there for a couple of years and then started his own restaurant, Bijoux. At the same time, he and his wife (Gina) oversee The Second Floor restaurant in the Westin Galleria Hotel (Figure 14).
Figure 14.
(a) Gina and Scott, June 26, 2005. (b) Their son, Preston Fox Gottlich, 2009.
Roberts: When he was growing up, did he cook?
Gottlich: All of us cooked a little bit, but nothing formal.
Roberts: You said his wife works with him?
Gottlich: Gina and Scott met at the restaurant in California, and she's a sommelier. She has a good eye for decor, color, and styles, and they fit together very well.
Roberts: What does your son-in-law do?
Gottlich: Steven Shiller is from Canada, although he grew up in Dallas. He works for a new start-up company, Wingspan Portfolio Advisors, which is involved with nonperforming and defaulted mortgages. Initially, he got his MBA and managed the technology division of a similar-type company. Then he worked for First American.
Roberts: What do you and your wife do when you get home from work? Do you eat at home or go out to eat? What is your life like?
Gottlich: We don't go out much. We do enjoy being with each other (Figure 15), and dinner is always special. We cook at home a lot and go out by ourselves and also with a couple of friends. Honey is an avid reader. I go through phases. I got interested in magic and did that for a few years. We played tennis a long time ago but not anymore. She doesn't play golf.
Figure 15.
A moment alone, Chuck and Honey.
Roberts: Are you and Honey quite religious?
Gottlich: Not in the formal sense, but we are traditionally. We go to synagogue intermittently, on holidays and on special occasions. Most of our religion is at home. Every time there is an anniversary of a death we do what is called “Yartiz,” which is to light a candle to remember. Passover is another big occasion, and the family comes over.
Roberts: What kind of hours do you have now?
Gottlich: Since mid 2008, I have been working on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and occasionally on Mondays. I have fixed obligations on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I get to the hospital about 7:30 am and usually leave between 6:00 and 7:00 pm. Mypractice now is mostly in the office. I do see patients in the hospital, but not many. On Fridays I do not have formal office hours.
Roberts: Are you going to work forever?
Gottlich: I have a fellows conference, which I have done the last couple of years, in which we go through a cardiology textbook. It takes me longer than it should, but I spend part of Friday and Monday trying to get that together. I read the chapters and try to summarize key points and put them on a PowerPoint presentation to make it more efficient and effective. When I find that it's not mutually beneficial for the fellows and myself, I'll quit. I love cardiology and seeing patients.
Roberts: Do you take off much for you and your wife to travel?
Gottlich: We aren't big travelers. This last summer we bought a place near Austin. About 2 years ago we took a family vacation. In the past we tried to go with our kids to historical and/or educational places, but as they got older we often were not able to do that. Since both our children and their families now live in Dallas, we decided to take a vacation together. The only way to do that was to rent a house. We found a place near Hilton Head called Fripp Island. We rented a house on the coast and we loved it (Figure 16). The problem was that it's very hard to get that many people together in one place when flying is required. We decided to look for a place closer to home. Now we try to go down to the summer house at least once a month. The long weekend keeps us sane, and we see our kids and grandkids.
Figure 16.
The grandchildren on vacation at Fripp Island in 2007: Lindsay, Fox, and Ryan.
Roberts: Chuck, is there anything that you would like to talk about that we have not touched on?
Gottlich: I'm sure there is, but I cannot think of anything. Thank you for spending time with me.
Roberts: Thank you!