We Deliver Smiles

Robert Palmer, M.D.

When clients see Dr. Robert Palmer coming up the walk, they know that in addition to a hot and cold meal, they may also receive some timely medical advice. “You don’t look so well,” he told an elderly woman one day. “You’d better get in soon to see your doctor.”

It turns out that Dr. Palmer’s gentle insistence saved that client’s life.

“The (clients) are all so nice, so glad to see me,” he said. “Some days I think they don’t see anybody but me.”

That’s a refrain often heard from Meals on Wheels volunteers, but one that can’t be emphasized enough. It’s one of the main reasons volunteers give MOW their time and energy, “Volunteering gives me a certain degree of comfort,” Palmer said, “I know I’ve done something useful with my life.”

Robert Palmer began delivering Meals on Wheels in 2002 after retiring from his medical practice, but he had been familiar with the organization for years. As a physician he often wrote diet orders for prospective MOW clients. After retiring, Dr. Palmer visited MOW to inquire how he could help, and was soon driving a route out of Community Hospital twice a month and filling in wherever he could.

A hard childhood and military combat created a resolve in young Robert that motivated him to become a doctor. One of a half-dozen children of a poor family from Waterville, Minnesota, he was hungry “most of the time” during the Great Depression when his father, a retired minister, was without steady employment. He said his mother never let the family feel sorry for themselves, even though they lacked electricity, central heat and indoor plumbing. Palmer earned 15 cents a day at his first job at a butcher shop.

The family moved to St. Paul, and during high school Palmer began a job washing trucks. He was soon delivering loads of hay to Chicago. That’s when he heard about the attacks on U.S. forces at Pearl Harbor. He enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces in March, 1942, and received his pilot’s wings a year later. Palmer went on to pilot the B-24 Liberator for the 90th Bomb Group, 5th Air Force, out of Port Moresby, New Guinea.

Palmer was almost killed in combat several times. “I decided, if I can live through that, I can do anything,” he said. Following the war he received a degree in chemistry from Macalester College in St. Paul. In 1949 he began medical studies at the University of Rochester in New York, specializing in cardiology and graduating in 1953. Dr. Palmer practiced 50 years, retiring from Community Hospital in Indianapolis at age 80.

Now 84, he volunteers not only at Meals on Wheels, but is CEO of the Fort Benjamin Harrison Historical Society, President of the WWII Roundtable and is a member of the Service Club of Indianapolis. He’s brought other retired physicians to the Meals on Wheels volunteer community, helps out at special events and is a member of the MOW Board of Directors.

Recently he shot a 44 on a 9-hole golf course. Palmer said, “I’m aiming to shoot my age when I turn 90.” For a guy who can do anything, it’s a good bet he will.

For further details, please contact us at 317.633.6325, or by e-mail at info@mealsonwheelsindy.org.

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