DR. MARVIN CHRISTIE
Last Friday, my son, Mark was visiting with us. I had some errands to run and he rode with me. We were travelling south on Sherman Drive. I pointed out to him the building that my good friend and former doctor, Dr. Marvin Christie occupied for his office for many years. Just seeing that building always brings back some good memories. I told Mark a Dr. Christie story as we drove along.

A few hours later, I was home and reading the daily newspaper when I was shocked to read of Dr. Christie’s passing in the obituaries. The visiting hours were that evening. I made a quick change of plans and I arrived at the G.H. Herrmann Funeral Home on Madison Avenue that evening.

The funeral home was filled with friends and family. I had a chance to visit with several friends standing in the line and others. I heard several Dr. Christie stories and had a chance to visit with a couple of his sons. For several years, we only lived a couple of blocks apart.

I shared a couple of Dr. Christie stories that evening. My first story was about a time when my family was contracting school buses to Perry Township. We purchased a school bus that had been hit in the rear by a fast-moving semi.

That bus had been totaled but it had less than 300 miles on it. We stripped off the wrecked school-bus body. We purchased a new frame and transferred all of the mechanical parts to the new frame. I then drove that vehicle without a body to Lima, Ohio to have a brand-new school bus body installed. That was a very long trip.

The best part of that trip was the return to Indianapolis. Dr. Christie flew his private airplane to Lima, Ohio and picked me up. A few weeks later, when the school bus was finished, he flew me back. The bus also had a new driver’s seat and windshield, features that were missing on the first trip to Lima.

My father had the service stations and the school buses. He later had a rural milk pick-up route. The milk cans held eight to 10 gallons were made of heavy steel and had to be lifted in and out of his truck.

Years later, dad had lots of trouble with his back with severe spinal disc damage. Dr. Christie had tried different things to help him. A couple of times he placed dad in the hospital. On one occasion, dad was in St. Francis and I stopped in to see him. He was placed on the hard table, laying on his back. He had his head anchored to a post behind his head and very heavy weights attached to his feet. Those weights hung over the edge of the table.

Because of the wrap that was around his chin, he had a very hard time with communication. I knew that he was in some pain but he was following directions and hoping for an improvement.

After my visit, I met some friends for dinner at the Fireside South Restaurant. Dr. Christie came up behind me and put his firm hands around my neck from behind. He was laughing and quickly explained that he had stopped by my father’s room. He joked that my dad’s height had increased and that he was about six feet, four inches tall. We enjoyed a good laugh about that.

Dr. Christie was a great husband, father, doctor, pilot and a pretty good basketball player. He played for Branch McCracken at Indiana University.
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I never knew when our paths would cross, maybe at a ball game, a grocery store, or any where. It seemed that he always spotted me first and somehow surprised me. I’m really going to miss that.
RIP my good friend.