Bio: Neis, Dr. Francis P. (Fifty Year Club – May 1966)

Contact: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org

Surnames: Neis

----Source: THORP COURIER (Thorp, Clark County, Wis.) 21 Apr 1966

A Thorp physician will be honored next month by the State Medical Society for completing 50 years in the practice of medicine.

Dr. Francis P. Neis, Main Street, will be among 20 Wisconsin physicians to be cited at the annual meeting of the State Society in La Crosse, May 9 – 12. The men will become members of the "Fifty-Year Club" at a formal dinner which annually recognizes those who achieve this milestone.

Dr. Neis, who has discontinued his practice, reflects that "the people up here have been good to me – I have enjoyed my work very much and have taken care of patients when they had money or not."

He said that most of his patients were generally quite conscientious about paying their bills on time' however, he chuckled when tell of several persons who waited 20 or 30 years to clear their accounts.

A native of Juneau, Dr. Neis graduated from Marquette University in 1916 and interned at the school's Trinity Hospital before establish a practice at Gilman in 1917.

He went to the Taylor County community at the request of a friend, who was serving there as a physician, then served at the only medical consultant there for five years. One year spent with the Medical Corps during World War I interrupted his practice.

After moving to Thorp in 1923, he continued to serve his former patients at Gilman, making frequent sick called in 30-mile round trips.

Not certain of the exact number, he estimates he has delivered between 3,000 and 4,000 babies.

Besides his medical work, Dr. Neis has served many years as a director of the Thorp Finance Corp. He is a former company president and chairman of the board.

Dr. Neis nowadays keeps in touch with his professional associates by attending staff meetings at Victory Memorial Hospital in Stanley and regular conclaves of the Clark County Medical Society, of which he is a senior member.