Ever since he was a little boy, all Marvin Zamost ever wanted to be when he grew up was a doctor.
Zamost’s dream came true — and he’s been a family doctor in Long Beach more than 50 years ago. During his medical career, he has helped thousands of patients with their health issues, even serving five generations of one family.
But during two events this month, more than 250 patients celebrated with Zamost as he announced his retirement in emotional goodbyes to them.
“How many people can do exactly what they wanted to do since they were a kid?” Zamost said, choking up as his patients applauded at his office on Spring Street in East Long Beach. “I thank all of you for letting me be your doctor. Thank you for your love and friendship.”
“Thank you for taking care of us,” an elderly man shouted from the back of the room to more applause.
“You are the best doctor in the world,” said longtime patient John French of Naples, to more applause.
Family, friends and patients attend a farewell reception for Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Letters pile up from friends, family and former patients at a farewell reception for Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Long time patient Greg Tedesco greets his doctor, Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, during a reception at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Family, friends and patients attend a farewell reception for Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
A gift for a man who was “a cut above the rest” was left during a farewell reception for Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Pat and Rich Archbold’s card presented during a farewell reception for Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, stands next to his younger self during a reception in his honor at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Dr. Barry Zamost attends his brother’s farewell reception for retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Lynn Stearns hugs her doctor, Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, during a reception at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Long time patient Greg Tedesco greets his doctor, Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, during a reception at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
John and Linda Sumpter, patients for over 50 years, attend Dr. Marvin Zamost’s retirement reception at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Pat and Rich Archbold attend a farewell reception for Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Bonnie Lowenthal, educator and former California State Assemblywoman, hugs Dr. Marvin Zamost during his retirement reception at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Pat and Rich Archbold’s card presented during a farewell reception for Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Dr. Jimmy Lindon hugs his friend Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, during a reception at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
A note left by a former patient at a farewell reception for Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Press-Telegram columnist Rich Archbold, right, a patient since 1978, attends the retirement celebration for Dr. Marvin Zamost, left, at the Optum medical office on Spring Street in Long Beach. (Courtesy photo)
Phyllis Conner, left, a longtime patient who started seeing Dr. Zamost when she was a student at Cal State Long Beach in 1977, attends his retirement party in early January at the Optum medical office on Spring Street. (By Rich Archbold, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
Dr. Marvin Zamost tearfully thanks his patients who attended the retirement celebration at his Optum medical office on Spring Street in Long Beach. (By Rich Archbold, Press-Telegram/SCNG)
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Family, friends and patients attend a farewell reception for Dr. Marvin Zamost, a well-known family doctor who is retiring after practicing for more than 50 years, at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Saturday January 17, 2026. (Photo by Axel Koester, Contributing Photographer)
Dr. Grant Uba, Zamost’s partner for more than 30 years, said his colleague was affectionately known as Dr. Z by patients and staff members.
“Dr. Z provided the best care, treating the whole patient, including medical and emotional and social issues, better than anyone I have known,” Uba said. “He saved lives and souls. He will be missed by everyone.”
Zamost was “a master of diagnosis and was committed to staying up to date with meds and treatment,” Uba added.
Zamost also had a sense of humor that he used to help patients, Uba said — especially younger ones.
“He put scared kids at ease,” Uba said, “shooting them with water guns he kept in his office along with other toys.”
Two patients – John and Linda Sumpter – said they would be especially sorry to see Zamost retire. They were his first patients when Zamost was a resident at MemorialCare Long Beach Medical Center in 1974. She was 26 and her husband was 30.
“I saw him first and then John was second,” Linda Sumpter said at the retirement party held at the Long Beach Yacht Club on Jan. 17. “He was very down to Earth, and we have been with him for all these years.”
John Sumpter, a former golf coach at Poly High School and a “Legacy Runner” at the Long Beach Marathon, praised Zamost for his diagnosing ability and caring attitude.
“He also had a no-nonsense attitude and wouldn’t give you tests and pills you didn’t need,” John Sumpter said. “We trusted him. Who are we going to get as our doctor now?”
I remember a patient who went to Zamost to treat a sore throat years ago. The patient was Mike Schwartz, who then was city editor of the Press-Telegram when I was managing editor. Schwartz was expecting some kind of prescription pill, but Zamost told him, “You don’t need a pill. Go across the street to the drugstore and get some Lifesavers.”
Schwartz now lives in Atlanta, but I called him and asked him about his visit with Zamost.
“It worked,” he said with a laugh.
Phyllis Conner, another longtime patient who started seeing Zamost when she was a student at Cal State Long Beach in 1977, said she appreciated his forthrightness.
“He didn’t pull any punches,” she said. “And he was caring.”
Her husband, Darron, was also a patient.
And you can also count my wife, Pat, and me as grateful patients for the last 48 years. When we moved to Long Beach in 1978, we needed a doctor for our 1-year old daughter, Kelly. The pediatrician recommended to us wasn’t taking new patients, but a neighbor told us about this young family doctor; primary care doctor is the more common term nowadays.
We liked the idea of one person serving all of our family’s medical needs — one-stop shopping is what Pat called it. So off we trekked to his office in Bixby Knolls. He moved to various locations in Long Beach through the years until ending up at the Optum office on Spring Street, near Palos Verde Avenue.
He saw us through countless colds, children’s broken bones, high blood pressure, gall bladder surgery and even cancer with his unfailing diagnostic abilities and his kind, but direct and practical, approach, often in times of stress.
Zamost was born in Highland Park, New Jersey, near New Brunswick, in September 1946. His mother was a nurse. His father was an attorney and lumber yard owner.
I asked Zamost why he wanted to be a doctor.
“I don’t know exactly,” he said. “I’ve wanted to be a doctor ever since I was 6 or so. My grandfather had Parkinson’s disease and it was painful to see him get worse. I got the idea that if I was a doctor, I could help people.”
He earned his medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston in 1972. He did his residency at St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Boston and then moved to Long Beach, where his uncle lived. He completed his residency at Long Beach Medical Center before going into private practice on Jan. 7, 1976. He was 30.
Also coming to Long Beach to practice medicine was his brother, Barry Zamost, who had a busy career as a gastroenterologist before retiring.
Uba said he met Zamost in 1987 when the former was doing his internship in family medicine at Long Beach Medical Center.
“Dr. Z was widely known as the best volunteer faculty member in the family medicine department,” Uba said. “His teaching ability was rewarded with the coveted Golden Apple Award to the best teacher in the department. Dr. Z taught us how to treat real-life patients in real situations, which would frequently differ from what we interns had learned in the ‘ivory tower’ of med school. He emphasized what a gift it was to be a doctor and how important it was to not only be part of a community but to support it.”
At the Yacht Club event, Zamost said that retiring was very difficult for him. He gave special thanks to his wife, Linda, his children and his grandchildren, in addition to thanking his patients, colleagues and friends. Many of the grandparents in the crowd agreed with his comment: “We love our children but we adore our grandchildren.”
In retirement, Zamost said, he was going to try to relax, do some traveling and gardening — and write his memoirs.
“Before I start crying, this is very hard,” he said. “Something I have loved doing all my life is ending. I love all of you and Long Beach. It has been a wonderful journey.”