If you’ve been to a sporting event for the Arab Knights in the last 28 years, chances are high that you’ve seen Dr. Randall Morgan of Morgan Family Practice there. A lifelong resident of Arab, Morgan lives out his ministry by serving the Knight athletes and their fans as the team physician at almost every home game and many of the away games as well.
The son of a former Arab football coach, Morgan interacted regularly with Dr. Porch during his athletic stint, and knew that should his life take him in that direction he wanted to do the same when he was older.
“Dr. Porch was our team physician when my dad was the coach at Arab a long time ago and I started seeing how he interacted with everyone in the community – and not just the athletes, but the people in the stands. I decided that’s where I wanted to go if that’s where life took me. I have a very supportive family and very supportive parents, and was able to complete medical school and residency in Tuscaloosa,” Morgan said.
Following the completion of his residency, Morgan married a fellow Arab resident, Kathy Whitaker, and the two knew they wanted to return home to start their family and serve the community they loved.
“We came back home and it was the best decision we ever made. I couldn’t think of a better place to raise kids than our little oasis. Everybody asks me what it’s like and I say I can tell you exactly what it’s like: we’re Mayberry, we’re Mayberry and we’re proud of it.”
With sports season in full swing, there are plenty of nights away from home for Morgan during the school year. Despite the lonely nights with her family away, Kathy Morgan says it’s inspiring to see her husband live out his dreams – dreams she helps support even in the office each day where she’s worked every position to assist her husband.
“It’s been challenging sometimes. You grow with the patients. I have worked every single position in this office and the hardest one for me, is to work as a nurse and to work that close with them. You grow attached to your patients and as they grow older you just fall in love with their family and you experience loss when they experience loss. Art was my major so I had never worked in the medical field, so that was something new to me. I didn’t realize that it would be a form of loss, but he has been great with it and it’s been his dream. I want to help him however he wants me to help him,” Kathy Morgan said.
Inspired by the mentors before him, Morgan says he knew he wanted to follow in their footsteps when he saw how much they loved it despite all the hard work that goes into sports and adolescent medicine. He says there are little moments that affirm his decision every single sporting event.
“There’s moments that occur just about every week that’s the reason that I was there. My nephew sustained a severe injury at Scottsboro when I was there, and of course I would have been there to watch his game from the stands anyways, but he got a lacerated kidney and broken ribs and I had to put him in the back of an ambulance. Just a couple of years ago one of my own patients fell in the stands and suffered a severe laceration to her head and a concussion and it’s all a team effort with the staff and EMT, but it was one of those moments for me. She said ‘I sure am glad you’re here’ and you know, I thought to myself, I sure am glad that I am here too.”
As the name implies, Morgan Family Practice serves everyone from ages five and up, but it also is truly a family practice as well. In addition to both Randall and Kathy Morgan working in the office, their three children have grown up within the walls. When their two daughters were children, Randall Morgan’s office would be full of toys, and there’s now a small putting green there for their youngest son.
For the Morgans, they could think of no better way to serve their community than through the office, saying it’s their ministry within Arab.
“I saw how my mentors that worked before me worked especially hard, but they seemed to love what they do and they seemed to have a genuine love for the community. That’s what we always try to show in our practice and in what we do – a genuine love for the community.”
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