As a private medical practitioner in East Hartford, J. Robert Galvin was no stranger to the whiff of machine oil. He could smell it on patients who were fresh from work, but it also reminded him of his own younger days as a mechanic.
The first four summers after high school, Galvin worked as a bench mechanic for Pratt and Whitney, where he made bearing supports for a J-57 commercial airliner. A modern-day mechanic would likely have to have some kind of trade school degree to do the work, Galvin said, but this was in the 1960s, when manufacturers would train summer hires on-site.
Galvin has spent most of his professional life in private practice and emergency medicine, now acting as commissioner for the state Department of Public Health. But the Pratt and Whitney experience had been a glimpse into a different kind of life.
“The work was hard, and I guess you’d have to say not intellectually stimulating. It gave me a good appreciation of what it’s like to work in a factory environment … I’m not sure that everybody who’s a professional has had that experience,” he said.
His coworkers clocked in 50 weeks a year at 7 a.m., likely working on the same machine parts every day; If Pratt and Whitney found it didn’t get enough orders, they could face layoffs, and if not – if they were lucky – they worked there for 25, 30 years, Galvin said.
Galvin said he got along well with his fellow employees: “I kept my mouth shut and worked, and they thought I was OK.”
But it made Galvin appreciate his opportunities, and his coworkers encouraged him to continue his education: “They told me what a great idea it was to go to college, and how they wished they’d had the opportunity.”
Before he repaired commercial airplane engines, the East Hartford native engaged in more lighthearted fare behind the counter at a local pharmacy. A different scene than the typical Walgreen’s pharmacy of today, Galvin worked at the “It’s a Wonderful Life”-style pharmacy/soda shop of the 1950s, where he scooped ice cream just as often as he rang up medication.
Galvin’s boss was a “kindly older man” – although, Galvin reflected, he was probably younger then than Galvin is now. A good first boss, the pharmacist was from the era when druggists didn’t go to professional school, but simply studied as apprentices under older druggists.
That old-style kind of pharmacist, like the mom and pop pharmacy/soda shop, is relegated to nostalgia these days.
“You just don’t see that any more,” he said.
Galvin went on to be a medic in the Vietnam War, heading up a ten-person team during combat. He happily returned home to private practice: “I was glad to get home. I didn’t get shot at during practice in East Hartford.”
Galvin has since had a varied medical career, including emergency medicine, and a teaching stint at the University of Connecticut.
