What Dr. James Dobson Meant To Our Family
Yesterday, (Aug 21, 2025) Dr. James Dobson went home to be with the Lord. He had many amazing accomplishments throughout the years; he not only impacted our country but the entire world. The internet is blowing up with articles about his life. Most will ring positive, and some will not because of his love for the traditional family as God intended it to be. Sadly, that hasn’t set well with some people’s cultural and political views back then or today.
To explain our love and appreciation for him, I have to share a personal story only a small group of our close friends may remember:
Over 45 years ago, my wife Pam gave birth to our son Nathan, who was born on Christmas Day 1979. The next months were the most challenging of our lives. Just one week into becoming parents, my wife was admitted to a regional psychiatric hospital by another hospital. They diagnosed that she was suffering with postpartum psychosis.
Fast forward, thank the Lord, Pam did recover and was released after about 3 months. We were finally able to begin to enjoy our amazing gift from God and family life together. During that 3 month event, we were separated and could only visit in a hospital ward surrounded by other confused patients. There were serious financial concerns that arose, and counselors, armed with only worldly wisdom and medicines. All this while as a new Dad working my job, maintaining a large fleet of school buses to pay the bills, as my in-laws so graciously took care of our precious son that I barely was able to properly bond with at the time.
As you can imagine, at 22 years of age, even with amazing friends and a strong church family always asking me what they could do to help, I had questions. Pam and I both eventually had many unanswered questions. I knew the answers to those questions could not be found in commercial mental health practitioners and for sure would not be found back in the psychiatric hospital across the table from the counselors they employed.
We had been hearing a man named Dr. James Dobson, who had a radio show on WRBS Bright FM 95.1, our awesome local Christian radio station. It was called Focus On The Family and was heard all across the country and beyond, broadcasting at that time from California.
Dr. Dobson spent 14 years as an Associate Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California School of Medicine, and 17 years on the staff of the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles in the Division of Child Development and Medical Genetics.
We wrote him a letter sharing our story, hoping he would maybe send us some literature that could help. Some weeks went by without hearing back. Then one night the phone rang….it was Dr. Dobson! He wanted to hear our story in more detail. He seemed to be in NO rush, and he asked us many questions before he shared his thoughts.
He started off telling us, ‘The top man in OB/GYN at the U.C.L.A. Medical Center does not even have a hypothesis as to the changes that happen in a woman’s body after she gives birth. During the 9 months her body gradually grows and becomes accustomed to being pregnant. When she gives birth, it then changes back suddenly to being, not pregnant.”
All they knew in 1980 was that there were major adjustments that take place in their hormonal system. According to Dr. Dobson, it affects different woman in different ways and primarily it’s hormonal and not mental. Wouldn’t you know, he said that they were aware that this transition back to not being pregnant takes around 3 months!
Dr. James Dobson shared a number of things with us that helped us move forward from that point. We are to this day very grateful for the blessing of spending that time with him and know it was God that made it happen. He was a such a respected Godly man with so many things on his plate, but he took the time out of his crazy busy life one evening to call clear across the country to hopefully help a struggling young couple in Maryland just because he cared!
Mark Wigley is the (now semi-retired) owner and manager of New Life Automotive. After graduating from Western Vocational Technical Center’s auto mechanics program he was responsible for the maintenance and repair of a fleet of 22 school buses. In 1983 he began taking evening classes at Catonsville Community College to learn computer-controlled automotive electronics while working at this present location. In 1987 Mark was offered the opportunity to buy the business from the previous owner and changed the name to New Life Automotive, Inc. Mark is a certified ASE Master Automotive Technician and Service Consultant with over 45 years experience.