DR. RAY CAMERON

IRON MOUNTAIN — After three decades with the Dickinson County Healthcare System, Dr. Ray Cameron will close his ear, nose and throat practice Friday.

Cameron is retiring as an otolaryngologist, though he said he might do some fill-in medical work as needed in the future “just to keep busy.”

Born in Ontonagon, Cameron was moved to Milwaukee a few weeks later when his father started law school. Though he would grow up in the Milwaukee area, Cameron regularly returned to the Upper Peninsula to visit his grandparents and eventually got his undergraduate degree from Northern Michigan University.

After finishing at Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee, Cameron was in the final year of his residency at Duke University Hospital in North Carolina when contacted by Dickinson County Healthcare System, which had learned through NMU that a doctor might be available that had U.P. ties, Cameron said.

He and his wife, Julie, moved to Norway in 1989, and he’s been here ever since.

Cameron said he gravitated to ear, nose and throat as a specialty because his mother and sister both had chronic ear problems. He also liked the mix of head and neck surgery along with other forms of treatment that come with EMT work, he said.

“There’s a tremendous variety of things that ears, nose and throat take care of,” Cameron explained, “so it doesn’t get boring.”

Now 63, Cameron said he decided to retire while “in pretty good health.” He looks forward to using his free time to travel, do more deer and bird hunting, golf and enjoy the new home they built and moved into a year ago on the chain of lakes in Spread Eagle, Wis., not far from the summer cottage they’d bought 19 years ago.

Cameron has three grown children, all Norway graduates — Brian Cameron, who lives in Iron Mountain; Caroline Cameron of Fort Collins, Colo.; and Logan Cameron, also of Iron Mountain — and a granddaughter and grandson.

In a statement, DCHS said Cameron “will be greatly missed by patients and colleagues alike,” adding its thanks for his commitment to the health system and community.

“We wish you all the best as you begin a new chapter in your life,” the statement concluded. “‘You have climbed the mountain, it is time to enjoy the view.'”