Matthew R. Stanfield, MD

I grew up on the southwest side of Indianapolis. We could see downtown from one end of our street and cornfields at the other. In high school, I was on the high school swimming team.  After undergraduate, graduate and medical school all at Indiana University, I moved to Oklahoma for my internship and residency.  I spent 20 years of residency and private practice in Oklahoma City and I finally came home!

I am one of four children. My father retired from the US Air Force and my mother was a private school educator. She even served as a principal here in Seymour, commuting from Indianapolis daily for several years. I have twins who are now 10 and an 18-year-old ready to graduate and begin his next chapter. My wife, who is half Canadian and half Texan, has spent the past 14 years of her life with me. I cannot wait to show her the beauty that is being a Hoosier and living in Southern Indiana!

I have a wide variety of hobbies.  I love riding Harley-Davidson motorcycles, grilling on the back porch and finding small town, mom-and-pop places to eat. I love learning about history, physics, social studies, anthropology and religion. I enjoy a wide variety of music, from classic country and big band to red-dirt metal and alternative. When I’ve gotten the chance, I’ve enjoyed SCUBA diving and snow skiing. I cannot forget to mention my love of IU sports!  I’m also excited to be back in Indiana as it has been a long time since I’ve enjoyed a big morel/mushroom festival!

It was my junior year in college when I first thought of becoming a physician. I took an inventory test at IU and it told me I should be a school bus driver or a military officer. I decided that day I needed academic challenge in my life, and though medicine did not come to mind right away, science did.

One of my best memories was the summer I spent as an intern, 22 years ago, at Schneck Medical Center. Everyone here was so very kind and professional. I was very excited to see so many people I met back then still working here today. I never saw sunlight during my residency, as we averaged 120 hours per week, so my best memories from residency were the birth of my oldest son, Reagan, and many of the patients I was privileged to serve.

I’ve never viewed it as a privilege for patients to see me in clinic. Rather, it is my privilege to be a part of their life, especially with such intimate problems such as pain and illness. The only reward in medicine is seeing people recover or improve from a given illness or injury.

 Schneck was part of my medical education and is now becoming a part of my future. The people here have been incredibly open, helpful and welcoming. I only hope I can repay such graciousness by serving the people of this community well. I am so happy to call Indiana my home again, and I could not imagine a place I’d rather be than in Seymour, Indiana.