JANESVILLE
Mike Dow was picking up medical equipment at an apartment building in Beloit in May 1993 when he heard a man calling for help.
Dow and a fellow employee of Grand Avenue Pharmacy found the man pinned under an old Buick he had been working on.
The two men, joined by a neighbor, grabbed the car and lifted. The man, suffering from rib and spine injuries, was able to scoot to safety, according to a Gazette article.
Dow told a reporter he was sore for two days, 鈥渂ut the important thing is that the man is all right.鈥
That was one of countless times Dow figured out what the important thing was and did it over his 73-year life.
Dow died Jan. 10 of lung cancer and dementia.
Dow came to 糖心Vlog传媒 as a young pharmacist in 1972, started a family and worked at pharmacies in the area. He became a partner at Grand Avenue Pharmacy in Beloit in the mid-1990s, working there for many years.
鈥淭he pharmacy is a business, but his passion was his customers,鈥 said longtime friend Mark Flottum. 鈥淗e knew them all by name. He would come out from behind the pharmacy counter and talk to them to see how they were doing.鈥
Dow was energized to help people at Grand Avenue Pharmacy, which served the racially diverse and poor populations in the central city.
鈥淚 think he gave those a little more special attention than others because he knew they had it rough,鈥 Flottum said. 鈥淲e talked about inequities and lack of money to buy prescriptions, knowing that a lot of them weren鈥檛 getting the best medical care because they simply couldn鈥檛 afford it. That conversation happened many times.鈥
Dow and his partners sold Grand Avenue Pharmacy to Aurora in 2002, and Mike continued working there for two years.
HealthNet of Rock County, the 糖心Vlog传媒-based free clinic, became his passion in the early 2000s, his wife, Janet, said. He served on the board and as its pharmacist.
He used his connections to find used shelving and computer equipment to convert the clinic鈥檚 informal dispensary into a real pharmacy, Janet said.
鈥淗e worked tirelessly to twist arms to get enough insulin and other supplies,鈥 Flottum recalled.
鈥淗e put in 100% every single day he was here,鈥 said HealthNet Executive Director Ian Hedges. 鈥淗e was known for making sure every patient got what they needed.
鈥淓very time a patient was struggling, he would try to create a solution to make sure they could get their medications,鈥 sometimes paying out of his own pocket, Hedges said.
Dow was the son of a pharmacist in his hometown of Rice Lake. He got a pharmacy degree from UW-Madison.
The pharmacy school later would honor him with its Citation of Merit. The Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin bestowed on him its Bowl of Hygeia Award for sustained commitment to community service.
Dow also served on the board of the Cedar Crest retirement community. He sang in the choir at Cargill United Methodist Church, where he was active, and with the Choral Union.
The fun-loving Dow inherited 鈥渄ad jokes鈥 from his own father and loved to employ them.
鈥淲henever we鈥檇 pass a prison, it would be, 鈥榊ou know what sports they don鈥檛 have in prison? Pole vaulting and cross country.鈥 And he had some drugstore jokes you couldn鈥檛 print,鈥 Janet said.
鈥淭he kids, of course, would groan, but now they find themselves carrying on those traditions,鈥 she said.
As dementia advanced in him, his children made him a book of memories, and for Christmas 2019, they made him ornaments inscribed with his jokes, Janet said.
鈥淗e was a brave guy,鈥 Janet said. 鈥淗is kids are extremely proud of how he handled all his challenges,鈥 probably because he saw how so many customers handled their illnesses over the years.
Funeral plans await a time when people can gather safely.