His wife Lynn, a noted recorder player, organized a concert held Thursday at Saranac Village at Will Rogers. Dozens of people attended, and afterward many of them lined up to thank Dr. Waickman.

“I’m really grateful for all these folks,” he said as he greeted people. “I’ve had a chance to meet all these people and be part of their lives. I’m happy looking forward to the future, sad for leaving the past.”

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Medicine

People applaud Dr. Tony Waickman at his retirement party Thursday at Saranac Village at Will Rogers in Saranac Lake. (Enterprise photo — Peter Crowley)

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Dr. Waickman has primarily been a cardiologist. He moved here in June 1985 to join Medical Associates, a private practice in Saranac Lake that closed two years ago. Since then he has worked for Adirondack Health. He and Lynn live in Ray Brook.

Patients, nurses and fellow doctors commented on his commitment to his patients. Nurse practitioner Marijke Ormel of Saranac Lake said he taught her many things that stuck with her.

“Often when I interact with my patients, I hear Tony talking in my head,” she said. “He had special things that he would say about how to take care of the cardiac patients, and that’s what I keep in mind, and I still pass it on.”

Ormel’s husband, retired family physician Dr. George Cook, said Waickman was “so absolutely, totally meticulous that … to get him to make a transition in to the next patient was really difficult because he was so intensely involved with the first patient. So he had a stack of charts that was gigantic.”

The Waickman children perform Thursday at their father’s retirement party, playing together for the first time in several years. From left are Bethany, Glen Loper, Kellen, Nicholas, Katie and Adam Waickman. (Enterprise photo — Peter Crowley)

“But when you read about his patients in his charts, you really get a fantastic picture,” Ormel added. “He was very, very thorough, and that probably gave him troubles on finishing his charts.”

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Music

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The concert was performed by Lynn on recorder and friend Elizabeth Cordes of Tupper Lake on piano, with Tony singing “Under the Greenwood Tree.” In conclusion, Lynn and Tony’s four children got back together to play a special tune, with help from one’s wife and another’s boyfriend.

Lynn and Dr. Tony Waickman applaud their children’s musical performance Thursday while minding their grandchildren Owen, 4, and William, 8 months. (Enterprise photo — Peter Crowley)

The home-schooled siblings were regular North Country performers back in the first decade of the 2000s. Their concerts frequented the Enterprise calendar, and they played at traditional contra dances all over the region. Since then, however, they have moved on to start their own families and careers. Only one, Bethany, went on to be a professional musician — and on guitar, an instrument she didn’t focus on growing up. She now lives in Maine, where she holds down six-string rhythm for various Celtic groups.

She composed the instrumental waltz they played Thursday, tentatively titled “Papa’s.” She sent her brothers the sheet music and a recording, but they couldn’t rehearse it together until the day of the concert.

“Our parents raised us with music as a huge part of our education,” according to her brother Kellen. He said their mother scheduled them to practice together from 8 to 9 a.m. and then on their own from 9 to 11 a.m. every day, and that some, like his younger brother Nicholas, would practice for hours beyond that.

Yet while Nicholas now lives in California, his violin resides at the family home in Ray Brook. He couldn’t practice before he flew in on Christmas Day.

Bethany Waickman and two of her Celtic music colleagues, Hanz Araki and Colleen Raney, will perform two sets Tuesday at First Night Saranac Lake, stating at 7 and 8 p.m. at St. Luke’s Parish Hall.