Patch Adams

American physician, famed over the years throughout the medical community for charging no fees, carrying no malpractice insurance and living with his patients in a country farm setting. He has always maintained that humor and joy are more important than any drug or therapy, relating this concept throughout the country for a decade at lectures and seminars.

A former mental patient himself who went back to school to become a doctor, Adams is founder of the Gesundheit Institute. He puts out a newsletter, "Achoo!" and is the author of two books, "House Calls: How We Can All Heal the World One Visit at a Time," and "Gesundheit: Bringing Good Health to You Through Complimentary Therapies, Humor, and Joy." He has been featured in countless newspaper article and a film about him, starring Robin Williams, was released in December 1998, "Patch Adams."

The younger son of a WW II Army officer who died in 1961 and his wife Anna, a schoolteacher who died in 1989, Patch does not remember how his nickname began in college. He grew up as an Army brat in Japan, Germany and the U.S. He was deeply shaken by his dad's death at 52 but it was his uncle's suicide in 1963 that pushed him into despair. He dropped out of school and made the first of several suicide attempts. He was 18 when his mom checked him into a mental ward at Fairfax Hospital in Virginia. He turned his own emotional corner by helping his roommate conquer hallucinations and a fear of squirrels. A few weeks later Adams left the ward and enrolled at the University in Washington DC. He became a conscientious objector to the raging Vietnam war.

Linda Edquist fell in love with that "incredibly charismatic person" in 1971 while volunteering at the same clinic where he worked in his final months of training. They moved in together the following year and married in 1975. Their son Atomic Zagnut (now known as Zag) was born in 1976, and Lars Zig in 1987.