Dr. Stephen Bump poses for a photo near his desk at the Grande Ronde Hospital Regional Clinic on Thursday, July 29, 2021. An internist, the longtime local physician is retiring on Friday, Aug. 6.

LA GRANDE — Dr. Stephen Bump rarely has to squint into the sun while driving each morning to his office at the Grande Ronde Hospital Regional Medical Clinic.

Bump gets a jump start on each work day, arriving at the GRH Regional Medical clinic by 5:30 a.m. to prepare for appointments with patients he begins seeing at 7:30 a.m.

“There is always so much to do. I want to walk into each appointment as prepared as I can be,” said Bump, an internist.

Bump’s days of beating the sun to work are going the way of dial-up internet, for retirement beckons. Bump will conclude a 30-year career as a physician on Friday, Aug. 6.

“I will really miss my patients. It was not an easy decision,” said Bump, who has practiced in La Grande throughout his medical career as an internist, a physician who specializes in treating adults.

Thirty-five years ago, Bump did not foresee himself becoming a physician. He had just graduated from Utah State University with a degree in biology/ecology and wanted to become an ornithologist, one who studies birds, just as his grandfather had.

Bump’s career as an ornithologist never took flight, though.

“I wanted to do something that would help the lives of people,” he said.

Bump was also steered toward health care by his father, Bob Bump, then a physician in Portland who had encouraged him to pursue a career in medicine, telling him that it would allow him to support a family and that he believed he had the personality and skills that would make him a good doctor.

The once aspiring ornithologist, who still is fascinated by birds, took his father’s advice and enrolled at St. Louis University School of Medicine, from which he graduated in 1988. Bump and his wife, Jan, moved to La Grande in 1991. They came to the area because of the beauty, its reputation for having excellent doctors and because there was a greater need for doctors, Bump said.

“I wanted to work in an underserved area,” said Bump, noting that this objective helped inspire him to remain in La Grande throughout his career.

Upon retiring, Bump wants to spend more time with his family and return to studying birds. Stephen and Jan Bump have a daughter, Joanne, who lives in Port Orange, Florida, and two sons, Tim of Middletown, New York, and Brian of La Grande.

Dr. Susan Rice, also an internist at the GRH Regional Medical Clinic, said Bump is an excellent physician with an uncommon ability for connecting with patients.

“He inspires a huge amount of loyalty in his patients. He has a lot of compassion and they see that very clearly,” she said.

Rice said many of Bump’s colleagues are impressed with the bonds he develops with his patients.

“We see it and it inspires us,” she said.

Lynette Allen, a patient of Bump’s for about six years, also speaks highly of the retiring physician. She said Bump goes the extra mile to help patients.

“You cannot put a price on what he has meant to the community,” she said. “He is irreplaceable. I’m so thankful that he took me on as a patient.”

Bump, when reflecting on his career, often speaks of his admiration for how his patients cope with so many life challenges.

“I have appreciated the spirit of all the people I have been honored to take care of,” he said.