By Annie Rhoades
Dr. Bill Primos (BA 80, MD 85) has always enjoyed two things: children and sports. It only seems natural that he would go on to complete a residency in pediatrics at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson and later a fellowship in Primary Care Sports Medicine/Adolescent Medicine at University of Wisconsin Hospital & Clinic.
Always possessing a keen interest in science, Primos traces the start of his desire to become a physician all the way back to his adolescence.
“I remember in junior high deciding I wanted to be a doctor,” he said.
Practicing medicine since 1988, Primos has managed to successfully meld his two passions by working for Children’s Orthopaedics of Atlanta and volunteering as a physician for both the 1996 Atlanta Paralympics and the 2000 Olympic games. Throughout his career, Primos has also worked with numerous high school and college athletic teams in Wisconsin, North Carolina and Georgia.
Primos spends most of his time seeing patients in the Children’s Orthopaedics of Atlanta clinic where he is able to treat and heal patients while talking about sports.
“Being able to treat patients who really want to get better, try hard to get better and do all they can to get better…that’s rewarding,” he said. “I get to help people, but I also get to talk about sports during the day, so it’s fun.”
His involvement with Olympic teams presented itself in 1996 during the Atlanta games. Primos said the process of volunteering was pretty simple, “just call up and say I would like to apply to help out.”
Primos said working with Olympic athletes is exciting and attributes much of that excitement to the higher level of intensity Olympic athletes possess than what one might typically find in a high school or college.
Primos worked with the Atlanta Paralympics in 1996 (archery, cycling) and a two-week volunteer stint at the Olympics training center in Colorado Springs in 2000 (volleyball, swimming, men’s gymnastics).
While his schedule keeps him busy in the Atlanta/Duluth area, he occasionally finds the time to get back to his alma mater and catch an Ole Miss football game including this year’s season opener against UCA.
In addition to splitting his time between athletic teams, Olympians and patients, Primos enjoys traveling on international medical mission trips to impoverished and medically underserved countries.
“I’ve been to the Dominican Republic six times, Guatemala once, Honduras once and then this year I went to Haiti,” he said.
Each mission trip holds a special place in his heart, but the one that sticks out the most is his trip to Guatemala in 2010.
Primos currently resides in Duluth, Ga. with his wife, Genevieve, and his two children, son Will, 14, and daughter Julia, 12.
While he may live in Georgia, he fondly recalls his days at Ole Miss and seems to impress his sentiments upon the rest of his family, as his son has already said he wants to go to Ole Miss.
