He delivered Ode Wangen's two children, now 25 and 21.

He worked with long-retired nurses Amaryllis Olson, Evelyn Braaten and Marlene Swan.

He delivered about 500 to 600 babies and treated thousands more patients.

Dr. Clifford Pesonen helped and worked with so many people in his 38 years at Austin Medical Center.

And many came to his retirement reception Tuesday to show appreciation and to wish him luck.

Pesonen began and ended his medical career in Austin. He started his first job as a family practitioner in 1965, when the clinic was still at AMC West.

"The staff here was very welcoming and friendly," Pesonen said.

Pesonen worked through many changes in medicine and technology. About five years after he started, nurses were assigned to specific doctors to form a sort of a team, a change that Pesonen thought benefited patients. In 1989, the clinic moved to the hospital so they could be in one location, which he said was another improvement.

Ila Jones was the first nurse assigned to him in the late 1960s and worked with him until she retired in 1995. Tammie Braaten began sharing the job with Jones in 1993.

"He's very a caring doctor, very organized," Braaten said.

"Very organized," Jones emphasized. "You knew what you could expect and there weren't any surprises."

Jones said he made it easy to schedule last-minute appointments and they would work together as a team.

Braaten isn't sure if she'll work for a particular doctor next. For now, she'll be what she terms a "floater."

"I'll work where they need me," Braaten said.

Pesonen, Jones and Braaten cut a 92-piece cake for guests near 2 p.m. Tuesday. After 35 minutes, the first cake was eaten and another frosted and flower-decorated cake was put on the table.

Pesonen greeted guest after guest, each wishing Pesonen congratulations or inquiring about his plans in retirement. His wife, Glenna Pesonen, snapped photographs throughout the afternoon.

Clifford and Glenna, who met in high school in northern Minnesota, have been married 42 years. In the mid-1960s, Pesonen earned his doctorate in medicine from the University of Minnesota and began looking for work.

He was offered a job in Minneapolis, but as they drove around the city, they reconsidered.

"I said, 'I don't think I want to live here,' and he said, 'I don't either,'" Glenna Pesonen said.

Instead, they looked around southern Minnesota, wanting a small town life, but a longer growing season than there was in northern Minnesota, Glenna Pesonen said.

They settled on Austin and plan to stay during Clifford Pesonen's retirement.

"We really like it here in Austin," Glenna Pesonen said.

Pesonen said he chose family medicine to provide health care specifically for families.

"I wanted to be an influence on the family as a whole, providing care for all of the family," Pesonen said.

Sometimes, he saw many generations of families coming to him.

That's why Wangen, a respiratory therapist at AMC, will miss Pesonen as his family's physician.

"I kept asking him. I said, 'What are my kids going to do?'" said Wangen, whose children, now in their 20s, had him as a doctor.

In retirement, Clifford and Glenna Pesonen will be taking a family reunion cruise from California to Mexico later this month. They also are planning to go on an elder hostel to California in November. On the trip, they will visit their son, Michael, and his family, who recently moved there. Their son, David, lives in Austin.

Pesonen talked about retiring for two years, never quite deciding on a date because he enjoyed interaction with patients so much. But now that he's nearing 65, he decided it was time to make a decision.

Monday was his last day in medicine at AMC. Tuesday marked his first day in retirement.

"Today's the first day of the rest of my life," Pesonen said, smiling.

Cari Quam can be reached at 434-2235 or by e-mail at cari.quam@austindailyherald.com