His infectious smile and love for patients make Dr. Rody Cox one of the most adored physicians on the UT Southwestern campus. As he prepares for retirement, the physician and educator reflects on more than six decades in medicine.

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Transcript

- This is a career that I've always wanted since I was about five or six years old. I lived nextdoor to a doctor, this was during the depression and prohibition. I'm Dr. Rody Cox, and I'm 93 years old, and I love what I do. I've been a physician for 62 years, and have enjoyed every minute of it. So I enlisted in the Army at 17, I got trained as a combat medic, when I got out of the Army I had the GI Bill and was able to go to medical school, become a doctor. When I started out, as a young doctor, we didn't have electrolytes, we didn't have any imaging except plain x-ray films. We didn't have dialysis, we didn't have intubation, and all of this has developed during the time I've been a doctor. I just have been always interested in trying to make a difference in people's lives. I was recruited to UT Southwestern in 1988 to be Dean of the Medical School. At that time, they were looking for a Dean who was both interested and experienced in research and also in patient care. I spend most of my time here, and I love it, and I like the people. I've found we have a remarkable faculty, six Nobel Prize winners. That's amazing, the level of research. I'm a doctor who really cares for his patients, and I'd like to be known and remembered as somebody who did that. I'm very proud to say I finished my career here.