Throughout Chelsea’s modern era, two physicians distinguished themselves by treating residents who lacked the means to pay for medical services. Dr. Morris Clayman and Dr. Sam Klauber were these men. Today’s residents without financial resources can visit the local health center for free treatment, a right enshrined in law. However, seven decades earlier, when Dr. Morris Clayman operated his practice on Chestnut Street, he had already become renowned in poor neighborhoods for providing medical care as a humanitarian obligation. Though he may not have framed it in those exact terms, Dr. Clayman was far from a typical physician. His patients were poor and struggling—recent European immigrants including Jews, Italians, Irish and Polish families, many with young children requiring medical attention but unable to afford it. No free clinic existed to serve them. Countless Chelsea families owed their very lives to Dr. Clayman, and decades after his death, affection for this generous physician persists among those he helped. Dr. Sam Klauber, who passed away recently at age 101, maintained a medical practice on Washington Avenue in Chelsea for 18 years. In spirit, he embodied Dr. Clayman’s approach—caring for the poor—though his patients were largely the newer Chelsea residents who arrived in the 1970 seeking their own version of the American Dream. Puerto Ricans, Guatemalans, Costa Ricans, Dominicans, Jews, Irish, Italian and Polish immigrants all received his care. He treated every person with dignity and, following Dr. Clayman’s example, declined payment from those unable to afford it. The city’s struggling residents and those served without charge by Dr. Klauber and Dr. Clayman owe these two physicians profound gratitude. A fitting gesture would be for Chelsea to appropriately commemorate these men who devoted their careers to serving the city’s people.
Doctors Who Cared More about People than Making Money
