Somewhere Between Excellent and Perfect ― The Remarkable Life of Dr. Irvin I. Donick

"Somewhere Between Excellent and Perfect: The Life of Dr. Irvin I. Donick" presents, through a wide-ranging text and numerous 4-color pictures, the remarkable story of a person who started life as a young child hiding from the Nazis with his parents in a horse barn in Poland, then comes to America at the age of ten with no knowledge of how to speak, write or read English. He eventually graduates college and podiatry school and becomes a trend setter in his field, with hospital privileges and surgical rights as a podiatrist. He also serves as the podiatrist for a professional basketball team. Eventually, he builds one of the largest podiatry group practices in the nation. Married to his high school sweet heart, he fathers a son and daughter who become lawyers and another daughter who becomes a doctor, and eventually enjoys interacting with eleven grandchildren. Denied a youth because of the Holocaust, Dr. Donick becomes a person of many interests. He builds toys and a train set for his children, starts a business selling ice cream, and is so skilled in woodworking he builds furniture for his family and friends and constructs a racquetball court in his home. Retiring at the age of fifty, he begins traveling the world with his wife, visiting all 50 states and 144 countries. Fascinated with photography, he takes more than 60,000 color pictures. A number of these pictures accompany the text that tell of his many travels, including his 'three most exciting trips' -- to China (in 1978 as part of the first American tourist group to visit), to the primitive section of New Guinea where he met former head hunters, and to Eastern Europe for the first time since he had left as a child. The stories, experiences and insights to be gleaned from Irvin Donick's fascinating life are all detailed here. So, too, are the observations about him by his wife, Barbara, his children and his colleagues. Also presented are his own words about his growing up, his harrowing experiences during the war, and his emotional return to Poland and to his original home. Through it all, Irvin Donick remained a strong, positive person, as captured in the title of this book. Stated by Irvin and Barbara's three children in a comment that opens the book, "If you ask our father how he is, he always says, 'Somewhere between excellent and perfect.' That's how he views everything and that's how we see him."

M. Hirsh Goldberg is the author of five nationally published books, as well as three authorized family histories. His books have been translated into French, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. He lectures widely on his books and has been interviewed on "Good Morning America," "The CBS Early Morning Show," "The Joan Rivers Show," Canada's leading TV talk show, and numerous other TV and radio programs. A native of Baltimore, he is a graduate of Johns Hopkins University with a bachelor's degree in English, a master's in teaching, and a minor in the Creative Writing Seminars at Hopkins. He has more than 30 years experience in public relations, with accreditation from the Public Relations Society of America, and has served as press secretary and speech writer for a Governor of Maryland and a Mayor of Baltimore. His email is mhgoldberg@comcast.net