Barry's Biography

updated 23 January 2000, 9 am MST

I am Barry Wohl. I have been a pediatrician with Northeast Wyoming Pediatric Associates since 1978.  Nothing makes me happier than being a doctor for children.  I feel so lucky to have a chance to help children grow up healthy and to help parents with the many challenges they face.

  (Here is a picture of me with newborn baby Ashlyn and her mum on Thanksgiving Day, 1999)

My wife Jane and I moved to Sheridan, Wyoming in 1978 from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania because we wanted live and work in a small town in the West. Before we moved to Sheridan, we loved backpacking and cross country skiing as hobbies. We fell in love with Yellowstone National Park when we spent the month of July, 1974 backpacking in Yellowstone.

I chose pediatric medicine as a career because I love to work with kids, I love hard work, and I am good at science. I feel great joy from the satisfaction of seeing patients regain their health and from seeing parents get more skillful at parenting. Kids don't come with instruction manuals, but the kids teach us what we need to know, as long as we know how to listen.

I was born in 1947 and grew up in the Philadelphia area. My dad was a radiologist in Philadelphia and my mom is a psychiatrist. They sent me to summer camps in Vermont called Farm and Wilderness Camps. I attended F&W from 1957 through 1973 as a camper, counselor and finally as a camp director. Jane and I met at F&W.

Jane and I fell in love during the summer of 1967 and married June 1, 1968. I graduated from Swarthmore College in 1969. Jane and I moved to UC Santa Barbara where Jane finished her B.A. in Art, and I studied psychology and received an M.A. in 1971. We returned to Philadelphia. Jane worked in special education and got an M.Ed. in special education from Antioch College. I studied medicine at the University of Pennsyslvania (M.D. in 1975) and trained as a pediatrician at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia from 1975 through 1978. Our first child, Elizabeth was born in Philly in 1976.

In 1978 we moved to Sheridan because we loved the beauty of the area and wanted to work in a small town. We thought Sheridan to be a wonderful community and our expectations have been fulfilled here.

I practiced with John G. Knepper, M.D. from 1978 through 1990 and with Francesco G. Beuf, M.D. from 1981 through 1990. During those years, we were the only pediatricians in the vicinity and the community depended on us for pediatric intensive care, pediatric preventive care, and even emergency room coverage. After John and Chek left Sheridan, I brought several physicians and mid-level pediatric specialists to town to maintain the depth of care the community needs. Marilyn Horsley, P.A.-C. joined NEWPA-PC in 1978 as a nurse, trained at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine as a P.A. and joined me as a P.A. February 1, 1997.

At the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia I received outstanding training in newborn care, pediatric intensive care, asthma and allergy care, and common infections. With my background in psychology, I took a special interest in children's emotional problems including family and school problems. I find practicing pediatrics a fascinating and challenging career. Every single day I learn something new.

Jane Elkington Wohl,  Ph.D. (my wife) ( wohl@newpa.com )is an accomplished poet and writing teacher. She received her Ph.D. from the Union Institute in 1995 after seven years of hard graduate work and a PDE (project demonstrating excellence) about four women poets of the west. She teaches for the M.F.A. program of Goddard College, Plainfield, Vermont and she directs the Young Writer's Camp of Sheridan.  Jane was appointed to the English Department faculty at Sheridan College in the fall of 1999 where she teaches English composition and literature.

Elizabeth, (erwoh@hotmail.com) (born in Philadelphia in 1976) is a student of  life and planning her graduate school education.   She graduated from  Connecticut College May 29th, 1999 with highest honors. I am a proud papa.  She majored in English and Government and was elected to the Phi Beta Kappa honor society.  She works as head of work projects at Camp Indian Brook, one of the Farm and Wilderness Camps.  While at Connecticut College Elizabeth studied at  the Mystic Seaport--Williams College program--everything from celestial navigation to singing sea shantees--and she spent two weeks at sea sailing.  Wow!  She spent her last semster with three faculty members and 11 other students in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Here's a picture of Elizabeth in Hanoi, Vietnam.  The picture was taken for the Connecticut College Magazine by Catherine Karnow and published in the Summer, 1999 issue of that magazine on page 34.

Jeffrey (born in Sheridan, three months after we arrived, in 1978) is a skier and fly-fisherman of outstanding patience and ability. He has skied for the Big Mountain ski team in Whitefish, Montana and for the ski team in Jackson, Wyoming.  He's now retired from competitive skiing and working for the ski team in Jackson.  Jeff worked for two summers as a fishing   guide for the Wood's River Fishing Lodge in Alaska.   He's also worked as a course instructor for NOLS, the National Outdoor Leadership School. He is interested in backpacking, rock climbing, skiing, fly fishing, horse packing, canoeing and kayaking.

Ben (born in Sheridan four years after we moved here, in 1982) shares my computer interests and has passed me in his programming ability and graphics ability. I hope he'll help me enhance this page soon. We climbed Cloud Peak (13,167') last summer and then I got Ben started fly fishing at Misty Moon Lake.  Ben is spending the year from July, 1999 until July 6th, 2000 as an exchange student in Linnich - Boslar, Germany!!!  We get an occasional fax or email and we think he's doing GREAT!  He'll return to Sheridan High School for his senior year in August, 2000.

My interests beyond practicing pediatrics and participating in this wonderful family include backpacking in the Big Horns, fly fishing on the Tongue River, CW ham radio (WT7T), telemark skiing at Antelope Butte and reading. Ed Abbey is my favorite author, but Catch-22 is my favorite book. Oh yes and computers. I love to explore computer uses in office medicine. MS Flight Simulator is my all time favorite program--any version from 1 through 6. (WordStar is my sentimental favorite. First word processors are kind of like first girl friends--don't you think.) I think we're the only household in Sheridan with zero television sets and four computers.

I've become very interested in "lightweight" backpacking.  During the summer of 1999 I took a nine day Cloud Peak Wilderness trip and covered about 80 miles, much of it cross country off trail.   By careful planning I was able to get my starting  backpack weight for the trip down to 36 pounds, and my ending weight 26 pounds.  I hope to go longer and lighter next summer.  I've found the web page "Light weight backpacking" is a great source for solid info on shaving POUNDS from the pack..

Here are some pics from my 24 July 1999 through 2 August 1999 backpack trip in the Big Horns.  My friend Darrell Leigh from Big Horn Mtn. Sports snapped some of them and joined me on the last three days of the hike.