Matt Bartels

More Than Just Cheap Cigars: the Life and Times of My One-of-a-kind Father - a Stogy Smoking, Gruff-talking Obstetrician Matt Bartels

This memoir is about a husband, father, doctor and friend. Jack Bartels became a success in his life primarily because of his own inner drive, but luck played a role at some critical crossroads. In his later years many could compare Jack Bartels to the television character "Archie Bunker," and most of those comparisons would have been fair. To take him at face value, however, would be a mistake. Jack was in many ways a study in contradictions. He was vocally opinionated but still open-minded, confident yet at times very shy, and brash but also deeply compassionate when people needed him most. He never sought praise and accolades as so many others do, and because of this his life is one worth remembering. Anyone from a large family, or with a parent or relative from the "Greatest Generation" can appreciate the life of Jack Bartels. A proud man eventually humbled by age and illness, Jack's course unwittingly highlighted the complex familial struggles of such end-of-life occurrences. The book is a journey about a man and his love of wife, family and career, as well as the humorous and at times dysfunctional state of one American family as they share in the life of a truly extraordinary character.