IN REMEMBRANCE : David Nightingale , MD 6 / 20 / 1931-4 / 28 / 2024
Dr . David Nightingale : number one in his medical school class at the University of Louisville and number one in the minds of our hiking group .
It ’ s hard to know where to start when embarking on the story of my 34-year relationship with Dr . David Nightingale . After spending several years working with him , a spectacular vascular and thoracic surgeon , he retired and I kept working hard , as I was in the early part of my career . In his retirement , he went on to do things like winning 5K races for his 70 + age group and winning his age group in the mini marathon ( 13.1 miles ) in his 70s . This was when I was working long hours and coming home late to hopefully help a little bit with young kids and see my wife and family late at night and on occasional weekends .
Jump ahead to 2014 , during my sabbatical before I started with the University of Louisville . One leisurely morning , I ran across him inadvertently and we had a brief meeting at a Prospect coffee shop . Little did I know that this chance meeting would provide a life-saving benefit for me . David motivated me by telling me about his morning hiking group , walking 3 to 5 miles every morning . This was with Mike Pratt ( of University of Kentucky Wildcat basketball fame ), Ken Cecil ( former Western Kentucky football player and Army Ranger ) and several other good buddies .
That stimulated me to consider doing somewhat of a similar situation , and we started a second walking / hiking group to help me reduce my cardiac risk factors because of my dad ’ s known coronary artery disease . Although I could have an acute cardiac event at any time from acute coronary plaque rupture , I am certain that David Nightingale ’ s motivation to help me keep up religiously with aerobics has helped add years on to my life . Once he and I started walking together on a regular basis in 2014 , every Saturday and Sunday and during the weeks before I started back up with University of Louisville , we had a wonderful time .
Intelligent , funny , always ready to jump right in and do something fun , was Dr . David Nightingale . He would always say , “ When I was a youngster , your age … I had a lot more energy , but I still have a fair amount !” He became a wonderful , great friend . We went hiking many times in Red River Gorge , staying at the home of Honorable Judge Sara Walter Combs , and took many trips on the Courthouse Rock Trail .
David and I went on many other trips . One of our favorites was staying at the Jimmy Buffett Margaritaville Hotel in Gatlinburg , Tennessee and eating at Forrest Gump ’ s Bubba Gump restaurant . Who would ’ ve ever thought that about David 20 years ago ?
We went to Savannah , Georgia and we both hiked the Blind Willie McTell Trail in Statesboro , Georgia where the original song Statesboro Blues was written . We went to Eatonville Georgia and had our picture taken with Brer Rabbit and did some walking in that area . We went to Lake Lanier and had wonderful visits with our buddy Jack Gilsdorf . Our trip to Savannah with Dr . Steve Carpenter was spectacular , with many fun events . Whenever we came back to Louisville , he would always ask me , “ When ’ s our next trip ?”
I loved his story about when he was hitchhiking from his
Dr . Nightingale was a GLMS member for 55 years .
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