John Ferger

DR. JOHN FERGER , 81, passed away suddenly and peacefully at his home in Dryden Village on Thursday afternoon, February 10. He had spent the morning seeing patients at the office of Dryden Family Medicine, which he founded in 1955, and was looking forward to enough snow for cross country skiing on his next day off.

Dr. Ferger was the son of Rev. Henri R. Ferger and Kathryn Reinbold Ferger. He received his primary and secondary education in India, where his parents were educators with the Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions. Coming to this country in 1941 after graduation from Woodstock

School, he enrolled at Swarthmore College, where he met his future wife, Martha. He received his MD degree from Cornell University Medical College in 1948 and his postgraduate training at the Cornell Division of Bellevue Hospital in New York City and at the Mary Fletcher Hospital of the University of Vermont. After practicing with the Foster Hatch Medical Group in Dundee, NY from 1950 until early 1953, he served with the Alaska Native Service in Sitka and Bethel, Alaska until 1955. He was there doing alternate service as a conscientious objector, the draft of doctors being still in effect during the Korean War.

Looking for the best of all possible places to practice family medicine and raise their three daughters, John and Martha selected the Village of Dryden and have been happy with that choice ever since. John loved delivering babies and caring for their parents and grandparents. His first office was in his home on Union Street. Later he and his long time associate, Dr. Walter Baurle, built a new office on Evergreen Street, which was shared for many years by the late Dr. Joseph Rothenberg. In 1971 Dr. Ferger became the first doctor in Tompkins County to be certified as a specialist by the newly established American Board of Family Physicians, and he has maintained his certification by periodic examinations ever since. He was joined in practice by his son-in-law, Dr. William Klepack, in 1989, by Barbara Breiman, FNP in 1996, by Dr. Howard Silcoff in 1997 and by Dr. John Weston in 2003. The presence of these valued associates allowed him to fulfill his vision of a continuing vital family practice in Dryden.

For many years Dr. Ferger spent several afternoons a week as school doctor at George Junior Republic. He also served at different times on the boards of the Alcoholism Council, the Family and Children’s Service, the Unitarian Church of Ithaca, and in various consulting capacities at the Franziska Racker Centers and Planned Parenthood of Tompkins County. During the Vietnam War he worked for three months with the American Friends Service Committee at their Rehabilitation Center in Quang Ngai.

In the 1960s he was active in several anti-war political groups and was especially proud of having been elected an alternate delegate (for Eugene McCarthy) to the Democratic National Convention of 1968. The biggest sorrow of his life was the ever widening departure of our country’s foreign and domestic policies from his ideals of peace and justice for all.

In addition to the joys of practicing medicine, hiking, backpacking, downhill and cross country skiing, white water canoeing, gardening, foreign travel and photography were among Dr. Ferger’s greatest pleasures. He enjoyed life to the fullest and felt fortunate to live in this beautiful part of the world. He is survived by his wife of 59 years, Martha Fuchs Ferger, and three daughters, three sons-in-law, three grandsons and three granddaughters: Gladys (Mitchell) Howard and son Theodore; Carol (William) Klepack and children Margaret, John Andrew and Martha; Kathryn Ferger, Lairold Street and children Chipalo and Jalika Street.

Dr. Ferger’s family will be present to receive friends at Perkins Funeral Home in Dryden from 2 to 4 pm on Thursday, Feb. 17. All are invited to a memorial service there, beginning at 4 pm on the same day. A second celebration of his life is planned for Saturday, Feb. 19 at the Unitarian Church in Ithaca at 2 pm.

Memorials may be sent to the TC3 Foundation (PO Box 520, Dryden 13053), the First Unitarian Church of Ithaca (PO Box 6, Ithaca 14851), or to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (http://www.UNHCR.org).