Looking back over a 50-year career

CADILLAC - For pharmacist Bob Allan, 50 years of dispensing medications, compounding formulas for doctors and helping customers find the best over-the-counter pain relief has been a labor of love.

Recently honored by the Michigan Pharmacist Association for his 50-year membership, Allan relaxed in the living room of his Lake Mitchell home to reflect on his career. His third-grade skating partner and high school sweetheart Ellie helped share the memories.

When Allan opened the Apothecary Shop in the newly-built Medical Arts building in 1970, his career flourished. As the owner, he explained, he was free to “pursue places where I saw needs”.

Translation: Allan wasn't stuck behind the counter just filling prescriptions. Now he was free to give the care and personal attention to his customers that was, for him, the real fulfillment of his chosen profession.

“We had the opportunity to treat the whole person,” explained his wife Ellie, who worked in the shop with him.

Over the years Allan kept a journal of the people he met because it was his joy to rub elbows with so many characters - from the bootlegger and the hobo in Flint to the salesman needing a decongestant. They all helped turned his “knowledge into wisdom.”

“The people that I met,” he explained, “just added a reasoning why pharmacy was a labor of love. You saw the joys.”

One of his favorite memories, one he calls a thrill, came when a woman drove from Houghton Lake to thank him one day.

The story began when Dr. George Wagner read about infertility research being done at Harvard Medical School.

“I have a formula,” he told Allan. “I will give it to you. See if you can make it.”

Allan was asked to compound progesterone into a suppository that would dissolve in the uterus. The new research stated that a lack of or low level of progesterone in those tissues sometimes caused infertility.

Allan created the molds and worked on a product that would dissolve at just the right temperature.

He got his reward when a young mother walked into his shop and announced, “Mr. Allan, I wanted to show you my little suppository baby.”

Allan recalled how the profession changed through the years, remembering the pre-computer days of old cash registers and filling out individual insurance claims manually.

Stories of helping fit patients with orthopedic braces, helping to create a successful diaper rash formula with Dr. Edward Stehouwer, and walking people to the counter to recommend the best pain relief - every occasion to help someone is viewed as his reward.

“We are millionaires in experiences,” Allan said. “Paychecks come and go, but when I think of something like this little suppository baby - I value that more than the remuneration part of it.”

news@cadillacnews.com | 775-NEWS (6397)