After
a stressful day at the office, Dr. Milford M. Foxwell Jr., finds sanctuary
in a quiet room above his garage. It is part library, museum and fantasy come
true. It is a room packed with baseball cards, bats, balls, jerseys and photos
of baseball legends. There is a Babe Ruth bat; a framed Mickey Mantle jersey;
a baseball autographed by Ty Cobb and a card of Maryland Eastern Shore great,
Frank “Home Run” Baker.
“I can come home with the worst headache and go into that room and either
read some history or fool around with some of the cards,” says Dr. Foxwell,
who graduated from the medical school in 1980. “It’s a real stress
reliever.”
Dr. Foxwell, who is 48 and known as “Mickey,” doesn’t have
a typical nine to five job. An internist and assistant professor, he carries
the title of associate dean of admissions at the medical school. In addition,
he sits on scores of committees. At the medical school alone, he chairs the
admissions committee, sits on the curriculum committee and the strategic planning
committee. He also heads the Medical Alumni Association committee overseeing
the restoration of historic Davidge Hall and frequently delivers lectures
on the history of medicine.
Two months out of the year, he is the attending physician at the Veterans
Affairs Medical Center where he makes rounds each day with students. During
those months, he logs about 70 hours a week, and often comes home with a briefcase
packed with work.
But hard work is in his blood. His father, Milford Foxwell, 70, who drives
a school bus, retired when he turned 65 and was back on the job the next day.
“I tell people I’m not the smartest guy in the world,” says
Dr. Foxwell, who is one of three children. “I have had to work hard to
carve out my niche at the medical school. No matter what I am asked to do,
I will do it. I just never give up. In that regard, I am like a pit bull.”
Dr. Foxwell grew up in the small town of Cambridge, Md., on the state’s
Eastern Shore. Both of his parents drove school buses and stressed the importance
of a 
college
education. While Dr. Foxwell was in the Explorer Scouts, he became interested
in medicine. Doctors at Cambridge Hospital spent time with the youngsters
showing them around the hospital. But it wasn’t until he was about 16
that he was sure he wanted to be a doctor. Dr. Foxwell visited Shock Trauma
with several other students from his high school. Peering through a glass
window, they watched doctors and nurses work on a patient who was badly burned
and needed both of his legs amputated. Seeing the doctors and nurses in action
“had a certain appeal to me,” Dr. Foxwell says. “The blood
and guts didn’t bother me. It was the way these nurses and doctors were
scurrying around trying to save this guy’s life.”
After graduating from high school in 1971, Dr. Foxwell attended the University
of Maryland College Park and graduated with a degree in zoology in December
1975. While waiting for medical school to begin in August 1976, he worked
at the U.S. Census Bureau, painted schools and taught ninth-grade science
as a substitute teacher.
Graduating from the medical school in 1980, Dr. Foxwell attended the Washington
Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., for a one-year internship. He came back
to the medical school in July 1981 to finish his residency in internal medicine.
He became chief resident from 1983 to 1984, and in July of that year he joined
the faculty as clinical educator. He was so well liked for his ability in
the classroom that in 1988, he received the Golden Apple Award, given out
by students to the best clinical teacher.
“That was probably the highlight of my academic career,” Dr. Foxwell
says. But in June 1989, he shifted gears and began working in the dean’s
office as assistant dean for admissions. A year later, he was named associate
dean. “I had an incredible opportunity, and I jumped at it,” Dr.
Foxwell says.
Dr. Foxwell is passionate about his profession. He believes selecting students
who will become future physicians is a very important task. And he labors
to recruit the best 145 students each year for the medical school. “It’s
invigorating,” Dr. Foxwell says. The new class coming is “like a
new day coming. You work hard to get this class, and they show up in August.
I see these students working hard. I see them graduate four years later. It
is amazing to see how they grow.” But the job is not an easy one, and
Foxwell, who is married and has a young son, relishes his outlet.
As a boy,
he liked collecting baseball memorabilia, but he got into it seriously in
1990 when a relative died and left him an autographed picture of Babe Ruth.
“The bug just bit me,” says Dr. Foxwell, who considers himself an
amateur baseball historian, especially of Maryland players.
He has turned the room above his garage into a museum. It has seven glass
cases filled with baseball cards and autographed balls. Jerseys hang on mannequins,
and 170 pictures of baseball greats hang on the walls. He has the jersey of
Jake Flowers, an Eastern Shore native, who played with the St. Louis Cardinals
in the 1920s. He has hall of famer Jimmie Foxx’s bat and canceled checks
signed by Ruth. And he has the jersey of his childhood idol, Mickey Mantle,
who he met in person in 1981.
Even his family takes part in his passion. Son Louis attends about 20 Orioles’
games a year, and wife Suzanne also goes to games and baseball auctions. When
the two became engaged, Dr. Foxwell gave her a 1929 World Series ring. She
gave him a 1971 red Corvette for a wedding present.
“She is as passionate about baseball as I am,” he says. What they
hold dear are their quiet moments in the room above the garage. “We drink
coffee there, and we watch movies there,” Dr. Foxwell says. “For
me, it is just an outlet. It’s a place where I have complete control
of my life.”