1977 would be a big year in Gary Winston’s life. He had just decided to make it on own his own as a doctor and start his pediatrician practice. It was a risky endeavor that would pay off, as this year marks the 40th anniversary of Winston practicing medicine in Benicia.
Born in the Manhattan borough of New York City, Winston’s family would move to a small suburb in New Jersey, where he grew up. He went to college first in Pennsylvania and later returned to finish his schooling in the Bronx. Winston said he enjoyed his time in New York for about a year before transplanting himself to the West Coast, specifically the Bay Area because he fell in love with the region.
After a year of studying with Dr. Arnold Einhorn, Winston found his professional calling in pediatrics. When he applied for his internships, Winston was at his first choice, Oakland Children’s Hospital.
“Not only did I want to go to Oakland Children’s because it had a good reputation and it was in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I wanted to go to a hospital that was just pediatrics,” Winston said.
Winston would have several more years of training around bay area hospitals before settling in Benicia. He worked for a doctor in Lafayette. This doctor would go sailing for months, leaving Winston an opportunity to gain experience in running a pediatric practice. The doctor wanted Winston to take over his practice, but because he become so smitten with Benicia, Winston declined the offer and opened a practice on First Street.
“I’m really lucky I’m in Benicia,” he said. “My patient population– not only Benicia, but my patient population in general– is just wonderful. They’re educated. They care about their kids. They are involved. They will have dialogue with me and appreciate my expertises.”
“There are other communities where I think they believe they know more than the doctor, and I don’t have that here,” he added.
Winston says he sees dozens of generational patients.
“I remember the first one made me feel old, now I love it,” he said. “Dozens and dozens, I’d say about 50, but it could be more. People come, and I see them and somewhere down the road they will say ‘You took care of me at one point.’ I don’t recognize all of them that come back with their kids, but I love that because that’s a real positive sign I am doing something right.”
Forty years of practicing medicine has endowed Winston with a certain level of wisdom, he said. The doctor tries to view current trends in medicine with a thoughtfully critical view, assessing which breakthroughs have staying power and which ones are just fads others latch on to.
“It’s really important for people to discern fact from fiction in medicine because you can read anything you want, and it’s one of the nice things about this population,” he said. “They are not buying too much into the fiction. There is a thing called evidence-based medicine, and i think it’s a good standard, doing real studies to find out if things work out or not. What I’ve learned over time is there’s lots of ways to raise a child, in that there’s not just one road that’s the tried and true. A lot of just has to do just with patients spending time with their children and talking to them and listening to them, figuring out who that child is.”
The doctor stresses it’s a team effort at his practice. Everyone pitches in, and it’s a reason for the 40 years of success. Winston wants to keep working well into the future, a minimum of 50 years, but hopes for more.
“I love medicine ‘cause it’s always interesting,” he said. “Every day is different. It’s walking in, and it keeps you on your toes.”

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