Tyrie Jenkins, examining an eye patient, helped pioneer the use of laser eye surgery in the state.
An eye for medicine
Ophthalmologist Jenkins is the fifth
generation to carry on in the health field
Tyrie Jenkins' great-great-grandmother was a 19th-century Pennsylvania midwife who concocted herbal remedies for the ailments of her day.
"She was the kind of person who would rub a potato on your wart and then bury it under a full moon," said Jenkins, a respected Honolulu ophthalmologist and laser eye surgeon.
The tools of the trade may have changed over the years, but Jenkins retains a link with her antecedents as the fifth in a line of women who have combined medicine and motherhood.
After midwife Sarah Colter came Linnie Mae Colter, Jenkins' great-grandmother, who became a nurse. Her late grandmother Elizabeth Miller became a full-fledge doctor; and Jenkins' own mother also became a nurse.
But Jenkins said this apparent family tradition owes itself more to an inherited feminine strength than to any hereditary interest in medicine.
"I think it's more about strong women who were driven and had loads of personality," said Jenkins, a buoyant figure herself, who is involved in a number of women's organizations and philanthropic endeavors.
Pointing to her grandmother, Jenkins points out: "You had to be a pretty tough chick to get through medical school in 1923."
The attitudes of the times had a hand in shaping the legacy. In the late 19th and early 20th century, many ambitious and civic-minded women were steered into health care because it offered more opportunities for women than other fields.
"It was a natural fit for women then. I think they felt comfortable in that role," said Jenkins' mother Elizabeth, who lives in Wilmington, Del.
Tyrie Jenkins' grandparents, Elizabeth and Edgar Miller, stand in a Liverpool, Penn., cornfield. Both were doctors.
Still, considerable backbone was required. Jenkins' grandmother endured hazing while studying to become a doctor. But she earned her degree and, along with Jenkins' grandfather, spent 10 years in Nepal in the 1950s as a missionary doctor.
Grandma Miller's mettle and adventurous spirit would capture Jenkins' imagination and coaxed her into medicine.
"Oh, the stories we'd hear around the Thanksgiving dinner table...," Jenkins recalled. "My grandmother really became my mentor once they came back."
Jenkins got her medical degree from Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia -- the same school at which nursing student Linnie Mae Colter enrolled decades earlier.
But not all of Jenkins' influences were maternal: credit also goes to her father Bill, a reluctant executive with DuPont who extolled the virtues of being one's own boss.
"Medicine seemed like a great way to achieve that because it's something you can pick up and just take with you wherever you go," she said.
In 1989, Jenkins did just that, picking up and moving to Hawaii with her then-husband, setting up her own ophthalmology practice, helping to pioneer the use of laser eye surgery in the state and becoming a pillar of the local ophthalmology community.
"Her grandmother was so strong and outgoing, and Tyrie really got some of that, too. She's full of beans," said her mother.
Jenkins is an enthusiastic supporter of the Winning Opportunities for Women Club, the annual Molokai Hoe canoe race between Oahu and Molokai, the Girl Scouts and other groups, and was named the Women in Business Advocate for 2004 by the Small Business Administration of Hawaii.
She draws inspiration for such civic involvement from past generations.
"There was always this indomitable spirit in the family's women to keep pushing the envelope. It's just that in the past the opportunities were more restricted," she said.
Still emulating her grandmother, Jenkins has volunteered her services in Majuro and plans to serve somewhere as a missionary doctor "once I get all my kids out of the house." She has three down and one to go.
Her daughter Annie, a soon-to-be sophomore at the University of California-Santa Barbara, made an interesting announcement recently: She was switching to pre-med studies.
"I was really surprised," said Jenkins, who has been careful not to pressure any of her offspring to ensure the medical tradition lives on.
"I purposely didn't push her so I was surprised, but pleased too."
