Dr. Martin Rush, Jr. M.D.

A lifelong resident of Middletown, Dr. Rush defined himself by his career and his marriage. He and his wife Mary Elizabeth "Betty" would have celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in May. They were the parents of just two children, David and Cynthia Rush, but just as a school teacher has many children, so does a psychiatrist. He continued in his role as psychiatrist against all odds.

Dr. Rush began practicing psychiatry in the 1960s in Blue Ball, Ohio, just outside Middletown, after establishing a successful practice as a family physician in Middletown. He returned to medical college to become a psychiatrist because he had observed that people's physical illnesses were usually preceded by emotional stress, and he wanted to treat the underlying causes instead of symptoms.

His book, Decoding the Secret Language of Your Body published by Simon & Schuster 1994, 200 pages, translated into several other languages, described his observations about the relationship between illness and emotions and was modestly successful, following an Associated Press story which increased book sales.

But he was more proud of his self-published memoir, Music Bravely Ringing, iUniverse 2008, which he called a love story. It told how a green kid who joined the WWII war effort became a seasoned adult because of the challenges he faced in the military, including his aching loneliness for his wife during his months of training and overseas duties as a bomber pilot.

Dr. Rush's wife encouraged him to try and try again, despite initial rejection by the Rhodes Scholarship and financial hardship from not quitting college and settling sooner on a career goal.

He became a passionate believer that people should follow their dreams. In the 1990s, after accepting the irrevocable nature of his hearing loss, he initially invited patients to scrawl out the portions of their therapy sessions which he could not hear. Eventually a cochlear implant allowed him to continue practicing psychiatry in a more traditional manner.

In 2004, he returned to the office ten weeks after a devastating stroke, giving patients the instructions that, if the therapy session did not work out, they could tell the secretary, and they would not be charged. Most of his patients stayed.

A brilliant man, Dr. Rush earned an A.B. magna cum laude at Miami Ohio University in 1948 then entered the University of Cincinnati Medical College and graduated with an M.D. in 1953. He left his class for two years to attend Oxford University in England 1949-1951 where he earned a B.A. and an M.A. on a Rhodes Scholarship.

He treated numerous cases of measles and delivered many Middletown babies during the five years in the 1950s when he practiced Family Medicine.

In 1963 he established an outpatient daytime treatment center which functioned for over 30 years, most recently as The Stress Center.

Until September, 2010, he was still seeing a few, selected patients each week for sessions aimed at curing conditions, not just quieting them with medications indefinitely.

Dr. Rush was preceded in death by his brother Eugene, his father Martin A. Rush Sr., and his mother Lorene Ida Mynhier Rush Hadjler. He is survived by his wife Mary Elizabeth "Betty" Miller Rush; his son David Rush and daughter-in-law Bonnie Rush of Louisville, Colorado and daughter Cynthia Rush, of Dayton, Ohio and son-in-law Patrick Coffey; his half sister Eleanor Vetter of Columbus and half brother Victor Rush of Cincinnati; the children of his deceased brother Eugene; his brother Richard of Middletown and brother William of Dayton and their children; and two granddaughters: Allison Rush of Vail, Colorado, and Rachel Barrett of South Carolina.

A memorial service will be held at The Manchester Inn on Sunday Nov. 7, 2010 from 2 pm-4 pm. His ashes will be spread at a later date. In lieu of flowers, donations should be made to www.americanrhodes.org, the Rhodes Scholarship foundation.