He educated himself and studied everything he could get his hands on.īecause without a deeper understanding of our world, you cannot create solutions. It also meant he needed to work hard, become knowledgeable in a plethora of different subjects. To be able to be engaged for social justice and human rights, he knew it wouldn’t be enough to just want to be that person. It was important to Patch to become “an instrument for peace” as he calls it. Something he has continued to do every day since. Whilst working hard to become a medical doctor, Patch began his work as a clown in public as well.
I left the hospital on fire and pursued a couple interests while working for my medical degree.” At 18, I found my desire to serve humanity through medicine and made the commitment to myself to never have another bad day. So much so that in his teens Patch tried to kill himself three times within one year.īut, as Patch says on his website, “Everything changed during the last hospitalization when I decided that instead of taking my life, I would make a (love) revolution. He got bullied a lot by his classmates for standing up against the racism around him. Suddenly, Patch found himself in an environment he didn’t want to have to adapt to. Thus, having a much broader perspective and maturity than his classmates. This came even more as a shock after growing up abroad up until then. Patch was placed in an all-white school where he was immediately confronted with the ugliness of segregation. Gave me self-esteem and made me a creative, loving man who cared for people.”Īfter Patch’s father died, the family moved back to Virginia. She was a schoolteacher and fed me of all my interests.
My mother, on the other hand, was remarkable. Patch says, “My father was so damaged by his war experiences that he couldn’t connect with me. They spent the last seven years with their father in Germany, where he was stationed and died in 1961. Patch and his brother grew up on army bases, outside the US during peacetime and stateside during wartime. His father was a United States Army officer who fought in Korea. Hunter Doherty “Patch” Adams was born in Washington D.C. He is also a social activist who has devoted forty years to changing health care.
A man who is best known for his work as a medical doctor and a clown. Many of you might be aware of him due to Robin Williams portraying him in a Hollywood movie in 1998: Patch Adams. Looking more closely into socially engaged circus, and into Clowns in particular, there is one person who stands out.
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