A BIG PERSONALITY WITH A BIG HEART
The man: Dr. Jacob H. Kety (1917-1977)
The artist: Gigi Burgan
The inscription: “In recognition of his devotion and dedication to St. Tammany Parish Hospital / Donated by the employees of STPH.”
One look at artist Gigi Burgan’s portrait of Dr. Kety hanging at St. Tammany Health System’s hospital campus is all it takes to get a general sense of the man. He was a big man with a big personality, and Burgan’s portrait captures that.
But there was more to him than gregariousness.
“He was well known for his colorful personality, but perhaps most remembered for his generous heart,” read a 1991 story in a hospital-produced publication. “As a general practitioner, he is remembered for his great ability to correctly diagnose a patient with minimal testing. But it was his kindness and compassion that really stood out.”
When making rounds in rural areas, he was known to accept payment in whatever form was convenient for his patients. That’s precisely how, over the years, he ended up with a barnyard’s worth of goats, chickens and other livestock.
Born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, he would earn his bachelor of science from LSU in 1940, after which he served in the U.S. Army during World War II as a medical officer in an infantry unit from 1942 to 1945. Seeing action in North Africa, Sicily and elsewhere in the European theater of operations, he earned five decorations and five battle stars, according to a 1956 story published in the St. Tammany Farmer.
After the war, he returned to LSU to earn his medical degree. He would remain a lifelong Tigers fan, going so far as to write a scathing letter to the sports editor of The Times-Picayune in 1970 denigrating the relative skills of rival Tulane’s football squad.
(“When Tulane can put together a half-dozen straight winning seasons, including victories over something stronger that Cincinnati, etc., then you can brag, not before,” he wrote.)
In addition to an internship at Touro Infirmary, he studied for a year at the University of Vienna. There, he met his future wife, Gaby Khalil Achkar, also a physician. In October 1957, Kety and Achkar were the first couple to be married in New Orleans’ then-new City Hall, a distinction marked with a photo and accompanying story published in The Times-Picayune.
Kety joined the inaugural staff of St. Tammany Health System upon its founding in 1954 as St. Tammany Parish Hospital, and he served as its chief of staff from 1966 to 1967. It was under his administration that the hospital was first accredited by the Joint Commission of Hospitals.
In addition to operating a private practice – including, for a time, in the old Madisonville library building – he was for years the team physician for the Covington High School football team.
Kety died in 1977 and was buried in Picayune, Mississippi.