Retirement announcements can bring up a bag of mixed emotions. Sometimes they are happy, and sometimes they are shrouded in sadness. Pediatrician Dr Rick Auerbach is all too familiar with the bittersweetness a retirement announcement can bring.

Auerbach has always considered himself a father first, then a husband, then a pediatrician, as well as a skier, boater, landscaper, and “all those other good things,” he recently told The Newtown Bee. Throughout his career, however, he has said that “everybody’s identity kind of changes over time.”

Auerbach’s career started at UConn School of Medicine in 1995. When he finished there, he did his residency at the then brand-new Connecticut Children’s Hospital. In 2001, Auerbach moved to Sandy Hook to join Laura Nowacki in purchasing a practice on Mt Pleasant Road.

While his career has been focused on the health of others, particularly the youngest patients, Auerbach says his own health history is “kind of pathetic,” and detailed a long history of back problems and surgeries to try and remedy the issues. In 2012, he had an upper back surgery that left him paralyzed from the chest down. He was hospitalized for 34 days and found himself on the “naughty list” at the hospital. Auerbach made jokes at his own expense, played jokes on the staff, and “roll[ed] with it,” he said, noting he was in a wheelchair at that point.

About three months later, Auerbach was back at work.

In April 2013, Auerbach opened his own practice, Auerbach Pediatrics, at 25 Church Hill Road. In 2019, Danbury Hospital closed some of its pediatric practices in Southbury and Newtown, which left some pediatricians unemployed. Auerbach took them in and moved his practice to the nearby Village at Lexington Gardens business complex. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill just a few months later.

In 2024, Auerbach sold his practice to one of his employees. During a surgery in 2025, he was told there was an issue with a disc in his back that was the source of all his problems.

“That kind of threw just like a monkey wrench into it, just emotionally,” Auerbach detailed. He remained on staff until January of this year, when he retired. The step has been difficult, he added.

“A big chunk of my identity was being a pediatrician. And even now, I have a hard time because I still feel like I have a lot to offer as a pediatrician, and I didn’t stop seeing patients necessarily by choice.”

Now Auerbach is trying to find ways to still be involved in the world of pediatrics. While he can still contribute by writing books and teaching, losing the practicing side of pediatrics is a “big loss” for him.

Auerbach’s two sons left a lasting impression on him — he affectionately calls them a “brilliant moron” and the other a “dumb genius.” Through his parenting journey, he has found that “being a parent makes you a better pediatrician, but being a pediatrician does nothing to make you a better parent.” He admits he was just as lost as anybody else when his first son was born.

To Auerbach, a lot of pediatrics is teaching parents, not just teaching medical students. In his efforts to keep practicing pediatrics, Auerbach hopes to write a book about parenting.

“What I always anticipated is writing a book that’s never been written for parents, and it’s not about how to parent. It’s about what not to do,” Auerbach said. “Anybody who wants to be a good parent, they’re already a good parent because they’ve already thought about it.”

He joked in saying that there are only a few things parents should not do. One of the first lines in the book is, “Don’t drop the baby,” which is quickly followed by, “If you do drop the baby, pick up the phone and call me!”

Auerbach added parents are not there to raise a child. Their jobs are to nurture a child, allow them to grow, and raise themselves. In order for children to grow, Auerbach said, children need to feel discomfort along the way, and it is the parent’s job to be there for the child when they fall, not to prevent them from falling.

About three years ago Auerbach purchased a home in Savannah, Ga. He hopes to move into the home full time soon, and hopes he can be involved at the local children’s hospital there by teaching residents. Despite that wish, he knows being an educator will not be the same as being a practitioner.

“In Newtown, being there for 25 years, I saw former babies having babies,” Auerbach said. “I always said to myself, kind of jokingly, ‘I’m going to retire before my first newborn has a baby.’”

The relationships Auerbach developed as a pediatrician in town have left a lasting impact on him. He said he remembers all the names and all the faces of his patients, adding that there are families that are “near and dear” to his heart.

Through tears, he declared there are some families he knows that he will never forget, and some that mean “that much more to [him].”

Regardless of how difficult it has been for Auerbach to walk away from his practice, he has kept his spirit alive through comedy. He claims he uses it as a deflection, but it was also a fantastic way to connect with his patients and families.

Auerbach has kept a “log” on his phone of “poop and pee jokes” that he has made up over the years. While his main focus of writing will be his parenting book, he did say he wants to write book one, pee jokes, and book two, poop jokes.

“You stop growing up at certain times in your life,” Auerbach said, “And I stopped growing up at 14, so I have the humor of a 9 or 10-year old boy.”

When asked if he had any favorite memories from his time in Newtown, Auerbach replied the bad and the good are mixed. He explained moving to Sandy Hook was the best thing, but it was also the worst because of 12/14. Auerbach admitted he has a hard time telling people where he is from because of the responses people give. Auerbach noted that on that day, he lost seven patients. They were the only patients Auerbach ever lost in his 25-year career.

“It’s kind of a loaded question. What are my favorite memories? It’s all about raising my kids. My kids going to Sandy Hook Elementary. My kids going through school, and raising a family,” Auerbach said. He shared that the tragedy changed who he was as a parent, a pediatrician, a business partner, and a husband. While the event was “heart-wrenching,” Auerbach said it was also “heart-warming” through an “outpouring of support” and “love.”

Auerbach’s life has been marked by many obstacles. He said that his wife tells him that if there is a God, “He must hate you.” Yet, with all these struggles, Auerbach has held onto the belief that he “will figure it out.” Rather than seeing closed doors, he sees windows, though “sometimes it feels like they’re building a brick wall.

“I don’t think anybody goes into pediatrics expecting their patients and their families to not just change who they are, but define who they are,” Auerbach said. “There’s nothing that happened that hasn’t profoundly made me who I am.”

The care Auerbach still holds for his patients is immeasurable. His patients are a part of him, and he hopes that he can be “as impactful, or at least a fraction” for them as they have for him.

=====

Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.