
DATE: Sunday, April 6, 1997                 TAG: 9704040220

SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON   PAGE: 06   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: COVER STORY 

SOURCE: BY MARY REID BARROW, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  145 lines

DOCTORING BACK BAY FORMER PEDIATRICIAN STEVE VINSON HOPES TO HELP HEAL THE ENVIRONMENT.

A YEAR IN AFRICA at a missionary hospital as a starry-eyed doctor in his first job actually started pediatrician Stephen Vinson down the road to another career.

Back in 1986, Vinson had just completed his pediatric residency at Eastern Virginia Medical School and was working in a Lutheran mission hospital in Cameroon, West Africa.

Ten years later, Vinson has a master's degree in environmental science and policy and is the executive director of the Back Bay Restoration Foundation, a group committed to the restoration, preservation and enhancement of Back Bay.

What he saw in that Third World country removed the stars from the young doctor's blue eyes.

``I once had seven children die in one week,'' Vinson said. ``That changes your perspective. I thought I was going to save the world.''

The children were sick for a variety of reasons, but many of them had parasitic diseases, such as worms or malaria, which were environmentally induced.

``You'd see folks take their baby in the creek for a bath,'' he said. Farther down he would see a lady washing her clothes and farther down, there would be cattle using the creek as a water hole.

``Now we are starting to see, and will see, more environmental illnesses here,'' he said, ``especially in children and the elderly.'' Asthma, often caused by smog and pollution is a good example, he noted. Recently, asthma was cited as one of the top 10 children's health issues in Hampton Roads by the Coalition for Infant and Children's Health.

Of course, a major career change did not come easily to Vinson. It took several years of thinking beyond his African experience before he actually took the leap.

Now the 40-year-old bachelor wonders if he had ever been cut out to be a doctor.

As a youngster in Columbia, S.C., he spent a lot of time outdoors scouting, camping, hunting and fishing with his dad. But, he said, his mom, like many moms, wanted her son to be a doctor or a lawyer.

So Vinson's interest in the outdoors took a back seat as he grew older. He worked hard in high school to get a college scholarship to attend the University of the South, where his interest in science led him to study pre-med.

``I struggled with pre-med in college at Sewanee,'' Vinson said. ``I wasn't out camping, unfortunately. There wasn't much time to spend outdoors in medical school, and residency is very engrossing, too.''

But when he went to Africa, his love of the outdoors was reawakened. He took the time to go on safari in Kenya. From then on, he began seeking out environmentally related trips to places like Alaska and Australia. The trips only fueled his thoughts about a career change.

Meanwhile back in this country, he went to work with Pediatrics at the Beach. The contrast between what he had seen in Africa and what he saw in the office here was great.

``There, people were dying without basic medication and here people worry about a simple cold,'' he said. ``We are all very spoiled here. Everybody should spend some time in a Third World county,'' Vinson added. ``I swore when I was there I'd never complain about a bad road back here, but I do.''

After his father died in 1987 and his mother passed away three years later, Vinson began to question his career choice even harder. A medical malpractice suit that was settled out of court also caused him to think more about medicine.

``I wasn't a very happy person,'' he explained.

Vinson went to a career and personal counseling center, where he took personality and aptitude tests. ``What came out was that I had other biological interests,'' he said.

In 1993, Vinson enrolled in the master's degree program at George Mason University and continued his pediatric practice here part-time until he got his degree. Then he made the leap, leaving his medical practice and going to work for the Back Bay Restoration Foundation.

Now Vinson is working hard for a lot less pay. Since the foundation job is not full time, he keeps his hand in medicine, working 20 hours a week as a part-time instructor in pediatrics in the emergency room at the Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk. His big regret about leaving pediatrics is leaving an ongoing relationship with children.

``I do miss the kids,'' he said, ``but I have a little component to that in the educational programs of the restoration foundation.''

His ability to work with children is one of his real assets, said Joy Eliassen, a past president and current board member of the foundation. She said there are a lot of conservation programs out in the schools these days, but Vinson's manner and his effort to keep his programs fresh keep the foundation offerings at the top of the heap.

``His role as a pediatrician makes him a very effective person to work with children,'' Eliassen said. ``He has really gotten our education program going. In fact, he has expanded it.''

Vinson takes the foundation's decoy painting program into elementary schools, where children learn about Back Bay while painting a wooden duck decoy to take home. But, Eliassen noted, recently he also constructed a scale model, complete with trees and houses, that he takes into the schools to demonstrate how stormwater run-off carries pollution from neighborhoods and streets into waterways.

Vinson also especially enjoys another of the foundation's activities, a water testing program. Once a month, he goes to several sites around the bay to test the water for temperature, salinity, pH, conductivity and dissolved oxygen. He also ships samples off to the Department of Environmental Quality in Richmond to be analyzed for pollutants. Vinson enjoys the quiet and solitude of working around the water.

``I love being out there by myself,'' he said.

In his leisure time, he likes being on the water, too. He owns a 1967 Chincoteague flat-bottomed scow and a canoe. He's also rebuilding an old farmhouse on the Mattaponi River.

Vinson works from his home in Lynnhaven Colony, where he also edits the foundation's newsletter, arranges speakers for the group's monthly meetings and works on their major fund-raiser of the year, the Flyway Feast in June. He also coordinates the foundation's program that helps farmers in the Back Bay area to install water control structures to help prevent agricultural runoff.

Vinson would like eventually to work full time with the restoration foundation. But to do that would mean raising a lot more money from the community or from grants.

But even as a part-timer, Vinson has found the career he was looking for.

``I'm so happy where I am with my life,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Staff photos including color cover by DAVID B.

HOLLINGSWORTH

Steve Vinson, executive director of Back Bay Restoration Foundation,

carries a bucket of Back Bay water for testing across a bridge on

Muddy Creek Road.

Vinson tags water samples for lab analysis.

Staff photo by IAN MARTIN

Vinson examines a sick child, Javonte Halsey, 6, of Chesapeake, as

Javonte's dad, Jerry, looks on at the Children's Hospital of The

King's Daughters.

Staff photo by CHARLIE MEADS