03/15/2026
I have never liked my name Randolph because kids used to call me "Adolph Hi**er" when I was in second grade. After that they would call me "Randy Candy." My grandmother "Mama Monchie" Ramona Quesada Garcia and my great grandmother "Mama Chinda" from Central City NM prayed in the Catholic Church and dedicated me to become a physician. So, even though our family was muy pobre, with no one ever going to college, they had a dream of me someday becoming a physician. They named me after a caring physician who took care of our NM family in the 1930's. His name was Randolph Watts, MD. Today I looked up Dr. Randolph Watts for the first time in my life. I found that he is the one who first helped to start what is now Gila Regional Medical Center. Dr. Randolph Watts was an important physician in Silver City in the 1930s. The Silver City Town Council authorized Dr. Randolph Watts to travel to St. Louis to request land donation from William Swift for a hospital project. That effort resulted in the building of Swift Memorial Hospital, which opened in 1937 as a 25-bed hospital serving all the mining people. That hospital later evolved into today’s Gila Regional Medical Center. Wow! I had no idea. I know that when I was first born, my grandmothers dedicated me to be a physician and gave me my name. So today this all hit me strongly as I see my own son Jeremy Randolph Jacobs-Garcia following in my footsteps. This is now my 40th year of practicing medicine. I do feel that my practice of medicine has been a true calling from God and I have cared for many thousands of people with the strength of God's love. I am not the physically strongest doctor to care for all these people with their innumerable health complaints. But, I do have God's strong love for my patients and He fills me on a daily basis. Thank Jesus for my Abuelitas who predicted my life. Please pray for my son Jeremy Randolph Jacobs-Garcia as he applies to medical school. Thank you.
