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| Doctor to retire after 35 years of family practice |
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| Written by Maddy Houk / Patterson Irrigator / | |
| Wednesday, 02 January 2008 | |
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At a glance
 Dr. LaTorre is retiring from is practice in Patterson after 35 years as a local physician. Photo by Elias Funez / Patterson Irrigator Today, Dr. La Torre has more patients than that, including 1,800 he sees on a regular basis. Now, the 67-year-old doctor is set to retire from his office at 101 N. Third St. on Jan. 31, as physician’s assistant Richard O’Bryan and Dr. Michael Schorr open First Care Clinic and take over La Torre’s practice. However, La Torre will not leave the town where he and his wife, Vicki, have lived, worked and raised their four children — Kathy, Tom, Barbie and Jennyfer. “When I retire, we’re going to stay right where we are and continue to support the town,” La Torre said, adding that most of his children still live on the West Side, except for Tom, who moved to Ventura. All four of his children are Patterson High School graduates, and throughout the years, La Torre has worked regularly for the community both at the office and in his free time. “I really felt as a physician that I needed to support the town in any way I could,” La Torre said. “I did shopping here, bought my cars here … I go to the Chevy dealer, and Vicki goes to the Ford dealer.” From a young age, La Torre wanted to be a doctor. When he was growing up in East Oakland, he admired his family’s doctor from San Leandro. “But my mom always wanted me to be a dentist,” La Torre remembers. “Then I met Dr. John Mott when my dad worked for Southern Pacific Railroad. Dr. Mott was a great, great guy.” Initially, though, La Torre took a different path after he graduated in 1958 from Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland. “I got distracted and wanted to go into engineering,” La Torre said. He went back to Michigan to attend General Motors Institute of Technology — and hated it. He later enrolled in the pre-med program at University of California, Berkeley, and graduated in 1963. Then it was off to medical school at Marquette University School of Medicine in Milwaukee, Wis., where he graduated in 1967. He met his wife, Vicki, a second-year nursing student, during his first year of medical school. The couple married in 1965 between La Torre’s sophomore and junior years, and Vicki La Torre worked as a pediatric nurse at Milwaukee Children’s Hospital while he finished school. Peter La Torre came west and began his residency in 1968 at Fresno County General Hospital after finishing his medical school internship in 1967. Then, instead of waiting to be drafted, he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force for two years. La Torre was stationed in Hawaii at Hickam Air Force Base and Wheeler Air Force Base and finished his enlistment in 1970. “I’d already decided I wanted to do family practice,” La Torre said. He finished his residency in family practice at Ventura County General Hospital in June 1972. A few months earlier that winter, he and Vicki took a long drive through the state, looking at places they might start a practice. They used the California Medical Association booklet, which gave information on what hospitals are looking for doctors and what doctors are looking for partners, as a guide. The couple set off in the car on President Washington’s birthday weekend in 1972 and looked at Patterson, Davis, Mt. Shasta and McCloud. Initially, Mt. Shasta was where they thought they would go. “On the way back, we looked at Sacramento and Oakdale and stayed overnight in Modesto,” La Torre said. “Nothing really stood out.” The young couple stopped at Del Puerto Hospital in Patterson when they started back home on the Monday of the holiday weekend. They spoke with hospital administrator Les Fuller, who called the town’s doctors — Frank Reimer, Vernon Goutiere, Albert Anderson and John Lanfranki. Each one went down to the hospital to meet the La Torres. Both Reimer and Anderson made La Torre separate offers to go into practice with them. On the way back to Ventura, he and Vicki discussed their options and decided to take Anderson’s offer. “We liked the situation,” La Torre said. “We called Dr. Anderson and told him we were going to come in June.” The couple and their four kids needed a place to live, and Anderson said he would take care of it. Anderson found a house for them to rent just two blocks from where they live now. “We stayed there for two or three years, and by that time, we decided to stay,” La Torre said. La Torre started in practice with Anderson in July 1972. After four months, though, he left to open his own office. “I talked to Lucille Filippini, who owned this building,” La Torre said of the North Third Street location. “She said, ‘I always wanted a doctor in my building.’ So she hired Ski Opinski, a contractor who remodeled the office into a physician’s office.” He's been there ever since. It initially took time to get the office space ready and to order equipment, such as exam tables, and supplies. By Feb. 1, 1973, the office was ready for patients and had two exam rooms. La Torre also had two employees — Robin Bert, a medical assistant, and Carole Thorkelson Swaim, a receptionist. Swaim said that as the first receptionist in a brand-new practice, she watched La Torre treat each patient with equal concern and attention. “I knew he was the right kind of doctor for Patterson,” she said. “After all these years, he’s stuck by his community, and they have been loyal to him.” Cindi Reichmuth, who has worked for La Torre since 1974, longer than any of his other employees, said that years ago, local doctors gave sports physicals to Patterson High School student-athletes at the high school gym. Now, La Torre does the physicals at his office every summer. “We shut down the office in the early evening and go sometimes till 10 at night,” Reichmuth said. “Dr. La Torre devotes his time to the community. He will be greatly missed.” Over the years, more exam rooms and more staff were added as the city's population grew and the patient load along with it. Barbara Torrison, who has been La Torre’s patient for many years, said he took his time during each visit. “He’s been wonderful, he really has,” Torrison said. “He’s been my doctor ever since Dr. Reimer retired. The thing I like about Dr. La Torre is he always took plenty of time with you and you never felt hurried. He always answered all my questions.” Though he is stepping down from work, La Torre will continue in the Lions Club, the Patterson Recognizing Individuals Determined to Excel scholarship group and the city’s Economic Strategic Commission. He’s also considered joining the Patterson Centennial Committee. “We’re going to continue doing volunteer work we’ve always done, because we enjoy doing it,” La Torre said. Vicki La Torre will still sing with the Sacred Heart Catholic Church choir, attend Preceptor Xi Phi sorority meetings and work with various groups, such as Girl Scouts. To reach Maddy Houk at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail her at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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