In his long and distinguished career as an activist and doctor, Quentin Young has fought to integrate the medical staff at Cook County Hospital, treated the wounds of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and infuriated Mayor Rahm Emanuel by thwarting his attempt to waste taxpayer dollars on Wrigley Field.
It was the first time we’d met and I wasn’t disappointed. As Nowakowski’s partners—Cat Jarboe and Jeff Bivens—filmed us, Young chatted amiably for over an hour, charming, good-humored, and gracious.
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I intended to zero in on my obsession—the business about Mayor Emanuel and Wrigley. But you know how it goes. You start talking about this, and you wind up talking about that. Before I knew it, Young was giving me a condensed version of his life story.
Following the war, he earned his medical degree at Northwestern University and went to work at Cook County Hospital, eventually rising to the position of chairman of medicine.
“I would make a 15-minute visit that would last for two hours,” Young says. “He was clearly a man with a mission.”
In particular, Young urged Washington to eat better and exercise more. Alas, Washington died of a heart attack in 1987.
Man, Chicago is a tough town.
