In the world of medicine the pathologist is known as the”doctor’s doctor.”

For more than 30 years that role at King’s Daughters MedicalCenter has been ably filled by Dr. Thomas Beall Walden.

On July 1, Dr. Walden will be retiring from KDMC after a careerthat has seen amazing changes in the world of medicine andespecially in the world of pathology.

Most patients never knew that Dr. Walden was working on theircases — spending hours hunched over his microscope diagnosingtheir diseases — yet for their doctors his services have beeninvaluable. He has been the one to inform surgeons whether tumorsremoved from their patients are malignant or not. He has offeredinsights into cases with particularly complex laboratory findingsfor the family practitioner, pediatrician, and internist alike.

As the world of medicine has become more automated with machinesperforming many of the functions formerly done manually bylaboratory technologists, in the end, it is still the pathologistwho assures that the test results are accurate. In many cases, heinterprets the laboratory findings as they relate to particulardiseases. Even in our current age of computerization and advancedtechnology, no machine has yet been developed that can tell asurgeon if a malignant growth has been fully excised, or definitelyidentify malignant cells on a Pap smear. For so many years that hasbeen the role of Dr. Walden, Brookhaven’s “doctor’s doctor.”

A native of Georgetown, Dr. Walden came to Brookhaven as thehospital’s first pathologist in 1969, after graduating fromMississippi College and the University of Mississippi School ofMedicine. He did his internship and residency at UMC and thenserved in the Air Force for two years before returning toMississippi to begin his career at King’s Daughters Hospital.

“There have been ups and downs at King’s Daughters, but overall,I am satisfied that it was a good place to spend a career of over30 years,” Dr. Walden said as he reflected upon his upcomingretirement.

He recently lost his wife of 27 years, the former GingerLeggett, after a long battle with lung disease. For many years shealso served as his secretary in the Pathology Department at thehospital.

Two of his four children have also followed him into the medicalprofession: his son Dr. Thomas E. Walden is a psychiatristcurrently living in Tupelo, and his daughter, Cathe Walden Knottrecently graduated from training as a nurse practitioner.

His two other children are: Christi, a student at MillsapsCollege, and Sam, who will be a senior this year at Brookhaven HighSchool.

He has spent most of his professional life in Brookhaven, and ithas become the place he calls home.

“If I were living and working in some urban area, I would belooking for a place like Brookhaven to retire. So, I don’t see anyneed to move somewhere else,” he explained.

During his long career he has seen many unusual things,especially in his role of many years as official ForensicPathologist for several southwest Mississippi counties.

“One of my special interests was forensic pathology. I did legalautopsy cases for Lincoln and several surrounding counties fornearly 25 years,” he said. “In my position as DesignatedPathologist with the State Medical Examiner’s Office, I worked formany years with Morris Henderson (former Lincoln County MedicalExaminer) and law enforcement officials to investigate unusualdeaths in the county.”

Among the forensic autopsies he performed or helped performduring his career were the three civil rights workers killed inNeshoba County, several of the members of the band Lynyrd Skynyrd,who were killed in a plane crash in rural Pike County, as well asmany everyday folks who sometimes died in extraordinary ways.

Now that his days of examining the diseases of others is aboutto come to a close, what will he be undertaking in hisretirement?

An avid reader, he has a special interest in biographies,histories, and literature, “particularly Shelby Foote, Faulkner,Thoreau and Marcus Aurelius.” Dr. Walden says, explaining that hehas a large collection of books that he has amassed over the last40 years. He plans to spend much of his retirement reading andrereading many of his favorites.

He also will be doing some writing.

“I have kept a daily journal since 1971, and I have rewrittengreat chunks of that into narrative form. Part of my retirementtime will be spent playing around with that,” he said.

An avid runner, he was a member of the Mississippi Track Clubfor more than 20 years, and he ran more than 100 road races,including eight marathons. Today, he doesn’t do such extremely longdistances as marathons, but he still walks at least an hour, fivedays a week, preferring to start the day at sunrise with one of hiswalks.

His other passion includes vegetable gardening, having turnedmost of his backyard into a series of raised vegetable beds that hehas developed over the last few years. He grows tomatoes,cucumbers, peppers, even corn, in his small plot that he enjoystending for most of the year.

With his retirement he leaves his longtime medical partner, Dr.Robert Britt, as KDMC’s lone pathologist and director oflaboratories.

“The last 10 years have been most enjoyable since my associationwith Dr. Robert Britt,” Dr. Walden said. “Robert has been like ason to me, and I feel gratified that I have been able to leave thelaboratory in such good hands.”

The close association has also been equally enjoyable for Dr.Britt.

“All of us in the laboratory and in this medical community aregoing to miss Dr. Walden’s expertise. He has been not only a been agreat asset to the physicians and patients here, but especially tome as a mentor and a consultant on some really difficult cases,”Dr. Britt said.

“I have learned so much from Tom, and I am really going to misshim in his professional capacity, but I know that I can always turnto him as a friend for advice and good counsel,” Dr. Brittadded.