When you meet Dr. Hugh Maiocco, you feel like you're rekindling an old friendship. His mischievous laugh and the twinkle in his voice instantly makes you feel at ease. He listens intently, letting jokes pepper his dialogue as he tells you how it used to be.

"Can you believe that we used to do 'shot clinics' on the weekends?" he says. "We would line up everyone at the high school gym and give them their polio shots. No paper work. Just shots. Can you even imagine that today?"

Maiocco and his wife, Carol, were raised in Queens, N.Y. After medical school, Maiocco had dreams of leaving the big city for something simpler. "I really wanted to be a country doctor," he says. "We didn't want that city atmosphere. I wanted to be able to learn a variety of things and train in orthopedics, anesthesia and obstetrics. You name it."

So in 1955, Maiocco and his wife came to California. After an internship at Stanford at San Francisco General Hospital and a position at the county hospital in Martinez, Maiocco and his family settled in Brentwood in 1957. They have two children.

"Things were much simpler. People were not numbers," he says. "It was very, very personal. Everyone knew everyone else and there was individual responsibility for our patients. Doctors had the freedom to create the plan of treatment and create care."

Maiocco even made house calls. "One year, I made 27 house calls on Thanksgiving. What else could you do? You had to see the patients. They needed you but couldn't make it in, so I came to them."

"Dr. Maiocco is a local treasure," says Jacqueline Hanel, site administrator at the John Muir Outpatient Center in Brentwood. "Everyone he meets is touched by his sincerity and kindness. He is just a very special person."

Hugh and Carol have been married 52 years and have a knack for finishing each other's sentences. "The thing about marriage is that you can be on the same page, but sometimes hear different interpretations of the same thing," says the doctor. "That makes life interesting!"

Maiocco also believes in keeping fit. At 80, he walks, runs or plays tennis for "at least an hour a day." After gaining the number-one indoor world running ranking in 1950 and again in '51, Maiocco qualified to represent the United States at the 1951 Pan American games in Buenos Aires, at which he took home gold, silver and bronze medals.

With more than 50 years of service to the community, Maiocco doesn't see himself slowing down any time soon. "I enjoy being a doctor now more than ever and have no plans to retire," he says. "My outstanding John Muir Health colleagues offer great support that allows me to continue to concentrate on offering personal medical care."