After delivering about 5,100 babies in his 30-year career at Mayo Health Clinic System in Austin, Dr. Laurence Nace retired Monday.

“I really love the specialty and the patients that I’ve been able to serve and who’ve entrusted me with their care,” he said.

A native of Ohio, Nace went to medical school and college in Ohio, did a residency in Chicago for five years and was in a practice in the Twin Cities for five years before he connected with Mayo. Nace said he has enjoyed watching the babies he delivered grow up.

“It’s been really rewarding,” he said. “It seemed at one point in time, many of the members in my son’s hockey team were kids that I’d delivered as well.”

“Even now, I’m delivering some of their children,” he added. “It’s been really rewarding, it really has, seeing people grow under your very nose.”

Nace hopes to spend more time with his grandchildren, who live in the Twin Cities, and said he will likely split the new free time between Austin and the cities. Although Nace has delivered many babies, he has not delivered his own family members.

“I guess I always wanted to be more of a dad than to be a doctor in that sense,” he said.

His free time will also be spent playing more music, joining more fitness activities such as yoga or spinning class, playing table tennis and more. But there’s one thing he planned to do on his first day off.

“People ask me what I’m going to do the first day after I’ve retired, and I tell them I’m probably going to sleep in,” he laughed.

He hopes for a good challenge with the changes retirement will bring.

“It will be interesting being on a different regimen,” he said. “Just for so long you try to achieve certain goals and that. To reset your aspirations and goals, it’s a good challenge.”

Nace was glad for the many opportunities being a doctor provided him, and the many chances to learn things he may never have gotten a chance to see.

“I think the resiliency of the human spirit,” Nace said. “Just so many times you see people that have carried burdens, that have encountered difficulties and you’re amazed at how they persevere and how they become adapted to their situations.”

“I think many times, many patients would feel that they don’t have the wherewithal to go on, yet they do,” he continued. “That inspires me. I think that there’s so many times you feel so fortunate to be in medicine that people are letting you into their lives, into their homes, into their families, that you feel fortunate to be able to maybe relieve some pain or inspire them back. That’s been incredibly inspiring.”

Over his time in practice, Nace delivered many babies, worked in gynecologic surgery, saw patients in the office for family planning and more. Although delivering babies can be an exciting and happy time, it can also be painful. Nace recalled a story his professor told him during training about a woman who lost her baby.

“He said, ‘It’s wonderful to be able to deliver an alive and healthy baby, but the people that really, really need you the most are the people where pregnancy doesn’t have a happy outcome,’” Nace recalled his professor saying. “‘Where you have to be able to reach out to them and pull them out of that difficult experience.’”

Nace also learned a lot about being a doctor and what the profession entails. He said it’s important to be flexible and be able to incorporate new aspects into practice.

“That’s what most people want,” he said. “They don’t expect someone who knows everything. They want somebody that has access and tries to help. Someone able to apply their knowledge to their particular problems.”

Nace said the community of Austin has welcomed him in over the years, and he and his family have made many lasting relationships they hope to continue in the future.

“I really feel grateful to the community and to the town of Austin as well,” Nace said. “There’ve been many people we’ve grown close to and we plan to continue living our lives here.”