This has been a momentous week for Dr. Eleanor Humphrey, the beloved local doctor and active member of the Spencerport community, turned 100 years old on Saturday, March 12.
She has received cards and recognition from lawmakers, including State Senator Joe Robach and Congresswoman Louise Slaughter, Governor Andrew Cuomo, and was awaiting something from the Office of President Obama. On Tuesday, a dear friend was scheduled to stop in with a “grilled-cheese sandwich,” and Wednesday, another friend was set to take Eleanor to Tim Hortons for a treat. Daughter Paula (whom Eleanor calls a “remarkable lady”) – also a doctor, specializing in geriatrics – planned to fly in on Thursday, and a celebration for close family and friends with cake was planned for the big day itself.
“Anyone who would like to celebrate and wish (my mother) a Happy Birthday, is welcome to send a card,” Eleanor’s son, Joel says.
At age 100, Eleanor’s eyesight is not what it was, but she is able to continue to live in her historic home on Union Street (it was a stop on the Underground Railroad) with the help of Joel and his wife, Deborah, who live there with her.
“I want to stay in my home,” Eleanor says, “the gardens are so nice.”
Recently, Eleanor recounted main events in her rich and long life, which began in Rochester, where she was born and grew up. She attended grade school and high school in the city and then attended the Women’s College at the U of R. She knew she wanted a career as a doctor and was one of the first local women to be accepted into the U of R Medical School, where she studied with the likes of Arthur Kornberg, who won the Nobel Prize for his discovery of the mechanism in the biosynthesis of DNA.
Eleanor remembers working for two summers on a job related to Kornberg’s research. “I stirred pig’s kidneys and strained them,” she says.
She was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa honor society at the U of R and married Paul Humphrey in 1941, during her last year of medical school.
She traveled to Boston for an internship and residency work and remembers the first time she delivered a baby, an experience that left her a bit in awe. “I came out and the sun was up, I felt there is something else that is guiding us in our lives,” Eleanor says of the natural wonder of birth.
Joel says his mother helped to open doors for women doctors in Rochester. “She was breaking-in when women weren’t really wanted,” he says. One fellow medical student – a young man – even told her to, “go home and learn to cook,” Eleanor remembers.
She opened her first office in the Medical Arts Building in Rochester and practiced in obstetrics and gynecology from 1944 to 1975. She then worked as a gynecologist for Planned Parenthood until the age of 77, eight of those years as medical director.
Eleanor has three children – two sons, Paul, a retired attorney, and Joel, who worked 42 years in healthcare; and her daughter, Paula, a physician; seven grandchildren and four great grandchildren.
“I only missed nine months (total) away from my practice,” while she was having her family, Eleanor says, and with support of family, she did not have to put her children in daycare.
She and her husband, Paul, enjoyed traveling the world. “We went twelve times over the Atlantic and twice over the Pacific,” she says, visiting such places as Japan, Thailand and Hong Kong. Eleanor and Paul took their three children on a “grand tour of Europe,” Eleanor recalls, which included Spain, Portugal and Morocco.
Eleanor also enjoyed playing piano, making doll houses and doll dresses, and gardening, which brought her special joy.
“I was a member of the Spencerport Garden Club for 60 years,” she says. Additionally, she was therapy chairman of district garden clubs for 13 years, working on projects like planting flowers and plants on the children’s play deck at Strong Memorial Hospital and also in garden therapy work with the disabled. She became a National Council Judge for flower exhibitions, something well remembered by fellow Spencerport Garden Club members.
“She was a very gracious lady,” Marlene Dyer says. “She was a flower show judge … the judges could be cruel and nasty, but not Eleanor. She would tell you what she liked about an arrangement.”
Jean Weaver also calls Eleanor, “an absolutely gracious lady, who always had something nice to say. She would make suggestions (regarding floral arrangements), always doing it kindly. She was very civic minded and never boastful, always one of the quiet background workers.”
Anne Blankfield calls Eleanor a, “wonderful woman … I’m a better person for knowing her.” Blankfield helped Eleanor with shopping and getting to appointments for several years. “She would meet people everywhere that she knew,” Blankfield says.
After Eleanor’s husband died in 2001, Westside News Inc. sponsored a children’s garden outside the library wing of the Ogden Community Center in honor of Paul and Eleanor. Paul enjoyed his involvement in Suburban News and Hamlin-Clarkson Herald as a frequent contributor of feature articles and light verses. The quiet reading spot with benches is protected by a hedge of arborvitae and continues to be a peaceful spot for young families.
Of making it to her 100th birthday, Eleanor very candidly says, “I would advise other people not to live to 100 … I can’t play the piano anymore, I can’t do my handiwork.” She notes she and her family always ate a proper diet and watched their weight and son, Joel, adds that his mother always kept active and never smoked or drank.
“I would have a cocktail once in a while,” Eleanor admits, “and sometimes a glass of wine.”
