Honoring a Giant of 20th Century Health Care

After almost ten years of being regaled by Kaiser Permanente (KP) historian Steve Gilford's wonderful stories about Sidney Garfield, MD's four-year sojourn in the Mojave Desert (1933–38), where the young surgeon literally laid the foundation of what would become KP, I was well primed for the long-delayed pilgrimage. Finally, last November, I at last had a legitimate excuse to fly down to Anaheim and drive more than 100 miles east, past the rich oases of Palm Desert and Palm Springs and into the empty, awesome wastes of the Mojave, in search of KP's birthplace.