Dr. Joan Traver Plans to Retire at End of August

Dr. Joan Traver demonstrates how to use a Carl Ziess eye machine on her husband Bob Appel. The equipment, which is over 100-years-old and still operational, is just one of the relics that Dr. Traver has collected in her Sister Bay office over the years. Photo by Len Villano.

Joan Traver has never been just an internal medicine doctor. Since she opened her practice in a little house in Sister Bay she’s delivered 16 babies, pulled porcupine quills out of whimpering dogs, and treated kittens for conjunctivitis.

She’s been doctor, veterinarian and reliable source of comfort in late-night, up-north emergencies.

“Anything that wandered in, I would find some way to take care of it,” Traver said.

That’s life for a country doctor.

Now, at 72 years old and after over 30 years working in Door County, Traver is retiring. She will close her office at the end of August.

Traver owns a clinic in Sister Bay in a building she designed with spacious, sunlit, soundproof rooms. The building also houses the northern office of the Community Clinic of Door County, where Traver has volunteered since 2006.

“We can make a lot of care affordable for people that need it, without making them feel like beggars,” Traver said. “They get the same care as everybody else.”

The clinic gives quality medical care to people who are uninsured, or can’t afford a conventional doctor trip.

“I’d like to thank Joan for her service,” said Laura Moeller, executive director of the Community Clinic of Door County. “If she weren’t there serving Community Clinic patients out of her private practice, many patients in Northern Door who don’t have insurance wouldn’t have anywhere else to go.”

Traver’s donations to the community don’t end there. She used to make a point to give away one doctor visit every week and still occasionally tears up patients’ bills. She believes everyone deserves quality medical care and wants to make sure her patients get it without going broke.

That’s the kind of community-minded philosophy that is easily lost in a lot of modern life, but Traver can hold on to a good thing, like an important principle or a solid walnut chair salvaged from the garbage.

As she built her practice, Dr. Joan Traver collected usable equipment that other doctors and hospitals were throwing away, giving it new life and preserving a history of American medicine. Photo by Len Villano.

She knows that as something ages it doesn’t lose value – her office is a good example. As she built her practice, Traver collected usable equipment other doctors and hospitals were tossing out and gave it a new life.

She’s still got most of the stuff – an examination table that dates before World War I, metal syringes, her rocking chair from medical school and more. She doesn’t use it all, but the equipment is there like a history of American medicine.

Her memories of working as a woman in the man’s world of medicine are part of that history. She was admitted to medical school in a time when the proportion of women accepted into programs was kept under 10 percent, when allowing a woman to do a man’s job degraded the profession.

Even when she moved to Door County, Traver found resistance from the local male doctors. It took three years for her to get a locker when she was working in the emergency room at the Sturgeon Bay hospital and just as long to be accepted in the community of local doctors.

She had just as much resistance from male patients, both young and old.

“It’s just that they’d never seen a woman in a position of authority, and so they can’t conceive of it,” Traver said.

Despite past discrimination, Traver’s hard work and quality care has gotten her a group of loyal patients.

Across the street from Traver’s office is the campus of Scandia Village, a senior living community. Traver was the facility’s first medical director in 1981 and has worked with many Scandia Village residents.

“She really developed that local following of clients that carried right through into the care center,” said Scandia Village administrator Michele Notz.

Traver doesn’t know how many people call her doctor – she guesses between 150 and 300. Still, she’s become an important part of Door County medicine.

“She’s a compassionate physician,” said Jim Thomas, former owner of Sister Bay Pharmacy and current manager of Shopko (Pamida) pharmacy. “I was always able to reach her on weekends if I needed to get ahold of her to discuss some of her patients’ needs. She was a nice woman who had her patients’ interests at heart.”

While she kept her patients at heart, Door County also captured a piece of her heart. Her first trip to Door County was enough to convince her to stay. She was driving through Jacksonport on the way to Ephraim on a winter’s evening when she knew this was the place for her.

“My big decision in coming to Door County was: do I want to make a living or do I want to have a life? I decided I want to have a life,” Traver said.

It’s time to take advantage of that life. Traver plans to sing in the church choir, do more stained glass work, write poetry and photograph the beautiful Door County scenery.

She may even write a book about a country doctor, and weave her years as local doctor and friend into the story.