Doctor at Wake County Urban Ministries dies after battling cancer

Dr. Gary Greenberg, the man known as the driving force behind Urban Ministries of Wake County has died, and folks in the community are mourning his loss.

Greenberg passed away this week after a battle with cancer. For the better part of a decade he served as the medical director for the clinic which helped those in need.

"As Gary and I worked together to frame what would be our open-door clinic, we said we wouldn't have patients, we would have partners in care," said Dr. Peter J. Morris, executive director of Urban Ministries.

Greenberg believed his patient-partners were his neighbors, and his beliefs would take him out of the clinic and down to the legislature.

"He would be down there on Moral Mondays," Morris said. "He would be advocating for the Medicare expansion, that all people deserve access to health care, to quality health care."

Quality health care was Greenberg's mantra. The system as he saw it became known as "Gary-care".

"Here's how we agree to share care, and here's how we agree to share care among each other as providers, setting our egos aside," Morris said. "Here's how we agree to share care and invite what one would call a patient, what we call a partner, into this care decision."

The clinic opened its doors in 1985, providing medical assistance to 400 people that year. Today it serves nearly 3,000 and Greenberg was is a big part of making that happen.

"I think Gary would scoff at the idea of legacy," Morris said. "I really do. This is what he might say: ‘Might we all find a way to have our hearts and our minds and our souls aligned so that we can profess and practice what we believe.’"

Urban Ministries of Wake County plans to honor Greenberg by naming the clinic after him.