Jackson on a horseback trek. During his time at Kingman Regional Medical Center, he would descend the 2,500 ft slope monthly to serve the Havasupai Tribe medical clinic. | Photo by Colorado Alumni Association.

Jeans and button-downs are enough for this doc

A small-town OBGYN’s 50 year career stands out as beloved, empathetic, and just a little profane.

By Lizzie Halloran | Journalist

Dr. Kenneth Jackson speaks low and steady as he recounts his monthly horseback treks down the 2,500 feet slope of the Grand Canyon to the Havasupai Tribe Reservation. Missouri Foxtrotters were the best breed for the trek, Jackson says, with their unique gait letting him cover more ground with less bouncing.

According to his girlfriend Shari Glass, Jackson cannot go anywhere in Kingman, Arizona, without someone recognizing him and pulling him aside. In fact, since his arrival to the small town late summer of ’91, there are a few extra Kens and Jacksons running around town.

Is he a celebrity? A western hero? Maybe to the locals.

But in reality, he’s really just an Arizona small town’s OBGYN.

Jackson’s propensity for cursing, usurping the Kingman Regional Medical Center dress code to allow him to wear jeans and cowboy boots to work, or even his monthly trek to the Havasupai Tribe Reservation’s medical clinic set him apart professionally.

Still yet, in a climate of rising patient distrust toward medical care and severe provider burnout, Jackson defies a national trend.

Jackson served for the last 50 years as a doctor to communities across the US. He began in 1975 at the 300-year-old Mission Charity hospital in New Orleans. He served on the Fort Apache Indian reservation. However, it is a small Arizona town off of Route 66 that he finally planted his roots.

A colleague wears a scrub cap touting Jackson’s face across it at his retirement party, which celebrated a career of 50 years. | Photo by Kingman Regional Medical Center.

Dr. Regina Conrad is a family medicine physician from Scottsdale, Arizona. She shadowed Jackson during her training at Kingman Regional Medical Center.

“Dr. Jackson was the kind of physician who quietly set the standard for what I hoped to become,” she said. “I watched him care for patients with a level of steadiness, compassion, and clinical excellence that left a lasting impression on me.”

She recalls a young mother who had taken Fentanyl throughout her pregnancy. She said not only did his steadiness stand out, but his humanity.

“He did not judge her, did not treat her differently, and met her with the same dignity and respect he showed every patient. In a moment where it would have been easy to become reactive or distant, he instead leaned in with compassion and focus.”

Milda Rogers is a nurse practitioner that had worked alongside Jackson since 1995. She said she had seen Jackson through many phases in life, including two marriages, but the happiest she’s seen the doctor is delivering babies.

Rogers recalled a moment as a nurse practitioner where she had approached Jackson, complaining about an issue she was having. She said she’s tried to follow the piece of advice she received from him then, though at the time it annoyed her to receive:

“Milda, just do your f***ing job.”

Glass said in every moment, Jackson tries to do the right thing.

“He’s passionate about his work,” Glass said. “I don’t think I’ve ever met someone who loves what they did so much.”

“He did not judge her, did not treat her differently, and met her with the same dignity and respect he showed every patient. In a moment where it would have been easy to become reactive or distant, he instead leaned in with compassion and focus.” –Dr. Regina Conrad, Family Medicine**

The women of Kingman loved what he did too.

“Constantly, there were women saying they wanted him to deliver their baby, no matter what,” Glass said.

Conrad agrees.

“The trust he built was evident in the number of patients who would say, ‘Only Dr. Jackson can deliver my baby,’” Conrad said. “That kind of relationship doesn’t happen by chance; it’s earned through reliability, empathy, and a genuine commitment to care.”

As hospitals and clinics are increasingly operated by corporate entities, consolidated into chain systems, or bought out private-entities, Jackson’s character represents how some medical workers rise above the systemization of their practice.

Despite being co-owned by Chevron and Desert de Oro foods (which operates Taco Bells, Pizza Huts and Kentucky Fried Chickens across the Southwest,) patients of Kingman Regional Medical Center, under the care of Jackson, love their OBGYN like a hometown hero.

Jackson holds a plaque named in honor of an extraordinary career alongside nurse practitioner Stacey Meier. | Photo by Kingman Regional Medical Center.

Jackson describes the two “Big Es” he follows to do his job well: empathy and ethics.

“There’s a wider spectrum of intellect that can do this job, but there’s a much narrower emotional spectrum that does it well. Maybe with AI you can do this job and not be as smart,” he said. “But you cannot legislate empathy or ethics or morality. This job will never be taken over by AI.”

“Watching him practice medicine shaped me in ways that go beyond textbooks or training protocols,” Conrad said. “He modeled what it means to be both clinically excellent and deeply human. That experience left a lasting mark on me as a physician in training and continues to influence how I approach patient care today.”

After a professional career of 50 years, Jackson retired in August of 2025.