Three generations of Encinitas residents had the chance to see Dr. Dwight Cook in action, and many more will benefit as a result of his service and his role in founding the city's only hospital, patients and colleagues said recently.

The 80-year-old doctor retired last month after a medical career that spanned five decades.

"I was always pretty well noted for someone who listened," he said, about his relationship with his patients. "They all seemed to appreciate that I was a patient advocate and dependable."

Cook's role in Encinitas started in 1958 when one of his medical school colleagues, Dr. Charlie Clark, sent him a letter on the USS Hancock, where Cook was serving as a naval flight surgeon.

Clark invited Cook to join him in a "small seacoast town" in San Diego County -- a place with warm weather and "some of the best deep sea-fishing on the coast." For a total investment of $7,000, Clark said, the two could take over a medical practice that had raked in "a healthy $30,000 in 1957" and included a 100-amp GE X-ray machine.

"The area is growing like mad," Clark lobbied in his letter to Cook. "Gosh knows people are in the area and need care."

Cook accepted the offer and moved his family to Encinitas in 1959. He bought a home with a distant view of the ocean and has lived there ever since.

The next year, with Clark, he bought a parcel of land from a local flower grower and formed the Encinitas Medical-Dental Building Corp.

The budding practice had an on-site lab and X-ray machine, allowing it to be a "one-stop shop" for most Encinitas residents. The doctors recognized, however, that they needed a full-scale hospital in the community.

Cook, Clark and a third doctor -- Ron Summers, who joined the practice in 1963 -- began looking at ways to finance a hospital in Encinitas.

They found that in one of their patients, farmer Herman Wiegand, who agreed to put up his personal stock as collateral on a loan. The trio broke ground on the Encinitas Convalescent Hospital on Santa Fe Avenue in October 1963 and opened its doors in April 1964.

After several expansions and name changes, the hospital was eventually purchased by Scripps Memorial Hospital in 1978. Longtime staffers reminiscence fondly that, despite its many metamorphoses, the hospital never lost its "hometown feel."

Cook was a big part of that, workers said.

"When I first walked into his offices looking for a job, I was immediately impressed with how in tune Dr. Cook was with the community," said Earleen Diaz, who worked for Cook as a receptionist for the past 28 years.

That hometown feel rubbed off on the hospital, Diaz said. "Its roots make it a little different to this day."

Diaz first learned of Cook in 1972. While her father was fighting in the Vietnam War, her mother fell ill and went to Balboa Hospital in San Diego with severe abdominal pain.

Diaz said doctors sent her mother home, insisting she was suffering only from severe menstrual cramps. When the pain persisted, her mother went to Encinitas Hospital and saw Cook. He suspected a ruptured appendix and quickly ordered blood work to confirm his diagnosis.

"Everyone else said, 'Take aspirin,' but Dr. Cook was an excellent diagnostician and saved my mother's life," said Diaz. "He had a great sense of what to look for because he listened more intently."

Though he's no longer working, Cook is staying active. He said he plans to play more tennis, go fly-fishing and tour the western United States with his wife, Sandy. He also remains committed to Encinitas, the community he loves.

"It's always been my favorite place to live," said Cook. "I wouldn't even think of living anywhere else."