Clark and Beverly McCombe: Love Across Four Decades

Love has propelled many of the decisions made by Clark McCombe and Dr. Beverly Ortiz McCombe. The pair met 39 years ago when both were studying in Germany, then their lives took different paths.

In the ensuing years, Beverly became a gynecologic oncologist. Clark remained a farmer, tied to the land that grows the fruit at Briermere Farms. This is the place where so many Long Islanders make a pilgrimage for their holiday desserts. Clark runs the family farm along with his two brothers.

“My parents, Leonard and Gertrude, bought the farm in 1960. The original fruit trees dated back to the last century, when the land was overgrown with briars,” Clark says. Leonard McCombe, a photographer for Life magazine, and Gertrude, a stewardess for Pan American Airways, met while he was writing a story about Pan Am. Their lives took a different path when they moved to the North Fork. It was only a few years after each had moved to the United States to start a new life.

They each grew up in a family surrounded by love and caring. Leonard was born in 1923, on the Isle of Man, an island between Britain and Ireland. His family cared for German refugees in the 1930s as they escaped the mainland.

Clark describes Gertrude, who was born in Germany in 1930, as a loving person who felt compassion for all those in dire straits living through World War II. That sense of compassion that was rooted in WW II was a defining part of her life, Clark says. “Life was hard during the war years. They learned to waste nothing. On the farm, my mother and grandmother made all the pies and jam, and nothing went to waste.”

Beverly was raised by her mother and great-grandmother in Philadelphia “I love being a farmer’s wife,” Beverly says with gusto. “I don’t get to use it much, but I have a tractor.”

Clark remembers his mom’s special treatment of those around her.

“(Living through World War II) really taught her that sense of caring, of taking care of others,” Clark remembers speaking of the woman whose compassion extended to the customers, workers and even the animals. “It was always take care of the animals.”

This caring continued, even when she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2014. Leonard cared for her for much of that time, until he was diagnosed with mesothelioma. It was through her diagnosis that Clark and Beverly reconnected. Gertrude died from cancer in 2018.

“I was her doctor,” says Beverly, who has chosen to have an independent practice rather than join a corporate structure. It allows her more time with patients. Beverly didn’t start out as a medical student. Her plan was to be a lawyer. But, her great-grandmother was diagnosed with metastatic lung cancer while she was overseas. She returned from Israel, where she was living at the time, and was at her side when she died. This experience inspired Beverly to switch to medicine.

“Her treatment (by the medical staff) was so mechanical and impersonal so impersonal,” Beverly remembers of the catalyst that led her to the arduous path to become a gynecologic cancer surgeon. She worked and went to school at night. “We didn’t have much money, but I got a great education. At one time, ovarian cancer was thought to be a death sentence. Now I can give hope to women who are diagnosed.”

Gertrude is the second love in this story.

“Caring for someone with cancer is an education,” Clark says. “There is so much thrown at you, especially in the session where they talk about chemo, the nausea, sickness, pain, weakness, and so they throw all that at you, then they ask when you want to schedule your first session.”

While Gertrude was surrounded by family and had a caring oncologist in Beverly, she couldn’t help but notice other patients who had no one with them at consultations, who had to wait for taxis, had no one to do the shopping, and other tasks. She talked to her family about starting a foundation, the Gertrude and Leonard McCombe Foundation. It provides funds to other not-for-profits that offer financial and other assistance to those with cancer. One of the foundation’s missions is to make the treatment tolerable and keep the patient comfortable during chemotherapy and radiation treatments.

“She would see others getting treatment who didn’t have the family support that she had and wanted to help them,” Clark remembers.

The family honored Gertrude’s wishes by starting the foundation in 2018.

Some of the foundation’s recipients include Catholic Home Care; East End Hospice; SHARE, a cancer support group; Heart of the Hamptons; and the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition.

“This has all been a tremendous education,” Clark says of both the cancer battle and setting up and administering the foundation. “There are all the legal things you have to know and do. We just hope that others who have the means to give or to set up a foundation to help, will do so.”

What’s next for this busy couple? Both are advocates of food as medicine. Clark and his siblings will continue to be stewards of Briermere Farms.

Clark has been invited to participate in the Nassau County Food Prescription Program, and asked Beverly to join in with him. Both efforts are in line with the couple’s belief that healthy food means a healthier individual. Beverly, who will continue her medical practice, also hopes to be more active on the farm.

“I’d like to use that tractor more,” Beverly says with a laugh.

For more info about Briermere Farms, visit briermerefarms.com. And for more about the Gertrude and Leonard McCombe Foundation, visit mccombefoundation.org.

Todd Shapiro is an award-winning publicist and associate publisher of Dan’s Papers.