Over the past 60 years, many Cape Ann fishermen have started and ended their careers, a couple generations of patients have grown up and gotten older, and Gloucester has seen its fair share of businesses come and go, in its downtown and elsewhere.

During those six decades, there has remained at least one constant.

Dr. Silvester Smith, podiatrist, has kept an office open downtown, and catered the needs of patients since 1954.

In a couple of weeks, Smith -- 89 years young -- will fully retire.

"I never thought it would end," he said.

Smith, a father of four and grandfather of four, has spent his entire career in central Gloucester. For 54 years, he said, he was based in the Lorraine apartment building on Middle Street until it burned down in December 2007, and six years at his current location at 199 Main St.

Currently, Smith only works three days a week -- in "semi-retirement," he called it. But Dec. 31, he said, will be his last day before he calls it quits for good.

"I told the kids I was thinking about retiring next year," he said, but added a few factors pushed the date up. These include the manner in which the insurance companies have been "taking over the health care industry," and the downturn in the economy, he said.

More locally, Smith was also told he must vacate his current office by the end of the year to make way for the brand new Gloucester Veterans' Affairs Clinic.

"They want to take over the whole building and I'm in the middle of it," Smith said, seated in his office earlier this week. "I couldn't do much about that."

Smith's office could be described as modest. A patient's chair sits in the middle of the examination room with a backless office chair on wheels for Smith.

No white coat is in sight; Smith is dressed in a sweater over a collared shirt and tie with slacks.

Plastic feet

Around his neck is one instrument that indicates his profession: a stethoscope. But this one is far different from those in general physicians' offices. While one end does have the earpieces for Smith to listen, the other -- typically a round, cold piece of metal pressed to a patient's chest or back to listen to the lungs and heart -- has a pair of plastic feet attached. It's fake, he insisted.

Smith said he didn't know he wanted to be a podiatrist, but somewhat stumbled into the profession at a young age.

A member of what has been called America's "Greatest Generation," Smith enlisted in the U.S. Air Corps -- what is now the Air Force -- during World War II with dreams of becoming a pilot.

"I enlisted when I was 17," he said. "They said I could finish high school, and bingo."'

But Smith was still in training when the war ended, and he was never deployed overseas. Instead, he found a job in a fire alarms company, he said, but then left that a few years later to work for a medical equipment company.

Visiting doctors

"One of my activities was visiting the doctors," he said. "One day I realized I was on the wrong side of the desk and I wanted to be on the other side. ... I found a way to do that and went to podiatry school."

Smith said he had no particular love of working with feet that led him to this decision. Going to podiatry school for him, he said, had a couple of strangely simple reasons.

"First of all, the extent of schooling was less," he said, noting that it was four years at the time.

The other had to do with the work day itself.

"I didn't think anyone would call me up in the middle of the night and say, 'My contractions are one minute apart,'" he said with a laugh.

A Malden native, Smith said he summered in Pigeon Cove as a kid and, after podiatry school, moved to Cape Ann full-time. Being around for 60 years in Gloucester means Smith has seen a lot of patients, and he couldn't hazard a guess at just how many. However, he did joke that many can now be found in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery.

Treating generations

"I've treated at least three generations, some four generations of people," he said. "Somebody comes in and says, 'You used to treat my grandmother or my mother, or my kids.' You might call it a family practice. I think that's a good word."

Smith said he's had some patients come every few weeks, depending on various foot maladies, to ones he's only seen a few times. He added that he had a new patient come in just this week. Some have chronic bone deformities, he said, while others have conditions like plantar fasciitis.

House calls, which could be said a dying practice in the medical field, are part of Smith's schedule still, he said, noting that he had one this past week. He said he also visits senior housing to tend to his patients.

A bond with the community is something Smith said he's had throughout the years, from participating in the Horribles Parade a couple of times, to taking part in Veterans Day celebrations.

"I try to keep associated with the community," he said.

But retiring from his podiatry practice doesn't mean Smith will be bored during retirement, he said.

He joked that his wife, Laura, has what he coined a "Honey, do ..." list for things she wants him to work on. He also has a vegetable garden at his house in West Gloucester that he looks forward to spending more time on, and a few chickens as well.

He also enjoys wood carving, he said, and used to enjoy hiking for a time.

Creative touch

"I'm creative" he said.

That's apparent in the various personal touches Smith has added to his office.

Atop one stack of packed items is a wooden seagull that flaps its wings with the pull of a string.

Still hung on the wall is a scuba diver's paddle with a bite mark in the side, another of Smith's creations. Painted on the front is the phrase, "I do not feed the sharks anymore."

While the tragic 2007 Lorraine fire that claimed a life completely demolished Smith's original office, he said that overall, his career has been positive and he has mixed feelings about retirement.

"Everybody I've seen this month, we've shook hands or hugged or whatever you do," he said. "We gotta call the wrecking company, have it back up and toss everything in."

What's kept him going, Smith said, is his patients.

"I've enjoyed every minute of it," he said. "There wasn't one bad situation that I can remember."

Arianna MacNeill can be reached at 978-675-2710 or at amacneill@gloucestertimes.com. Follow her on Twitter at @GDTArianna.

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