Hometown Advantage

For Greg Gerrish, the son of a Watertown surgeon, both the “what” and the “where” of his career path were pretty easy decisions.


Gerrish was hooked on surgery from as early as 8th grade when he attended one of his dad’s

cases. As for location, just two years into his five-year training at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis was enough to convince him that home was where his heart was.


“I signed on to come back three years before I was even done,” he says. “They knew they wanted me to come back and I know that I wanted to come back, so we made a deal.”


In addition to being close to family and friends and enjoying the slower pace that a smaller town offers, Dr. Gerrish also sees Watertown as an ideal place to practice the full scope of general surgery.


“In a city, there are not nearly as many opportunities to practice straight general surgery, so most surgeons end up focusing on a particular area,” says Gerrish. “But here, I can do it all. Everything from thyroid to breast to abdominal, skin, burns, trauma, endoscopies. You name it.”


Being two of seven surgeons in Watertown has also brought Dr. Gerrish and his dad, who works for Brown Clinic, closer together.


“If my dad has an interesting case, I might scrub in,” he says. “For anyone else, it might be like fixing the car in the garage with their dad. We don’t fix cars so surgery is our ‘shop talk’.”