GOSHEN — Goshen dentist Dr. Sam Judd said he knew he wanted to work in the health care business after he started working for his father, Charles “Gus” Judd, who operated Judd Drug Stores in Goshen and Elkhart.

He remembers when the Judd Stores had the lunch counter at the stores, where locals would stop in and drink coffee and smoke cigarettes — long before “no smoking” areas were established.

Gus Judd retired in 1979. He passed away Nov. 2 at age 87. Sam’s mother, Patricia, who was an artist, died in 1991.

Sam has one sister, Sara, who lives in Wisconsin, and Maggie has a sister who lives in Fort Myers, Fla.

Sam graduated from Goshen High School in 1970 and after graduating from Indiana University he continued in the IU dentistry school. After graduating he served in a one-year residency at a VA hospital in Minnesota.

He then returned to Goshen and established his practice on Goshen’s west side. The business has grown over the years and his son, Tom, joined him three and a half years ago.

“Now I am able to take a day off,” Sam joked.

His wife, Maggie, was raised in Sturgis, Mich., and moved to Elkhart on her 16th birthday, as her father was involved in the RV industry. She graduated from Concord High School in 1971. She also attended IU, where she had a combined degree in physical therapy and a masters in education.

The couple married in 1974 and continued their education together. After returning to Goshen, Maggie worked in therapy at Goshen General Hospital and helped Sam in the dentistry office until she began raising their family.

“I was fortunate enough to stay home and raise a family,” she said.

Besides Tom, the Judds have a daughter, Audrey who lives with her husband, John Causa, and their two sons at Noblesville, and Joe, who is single and lives in Indianapolis. Tom and his wife, Macey, have two children and live in Goshen.

The Judds now attend Grace Community Church.

Maggie explained she was involved a number of years ago in Bible Study Fellowship International in Goshen and was with the Goshen group for 15 years. She served in a number of positions in BSF.

Besides being involved in a lot of volunteer church work, Maggie was also a part of organizing the Goshen observation of National Day of Prayer.

“Prayer is my main thing and has been for a number of years,” she said. She is also involved in Voice Ministries at Elkhart at the International House of Prayer.

Sam has been stayed fit over the years by running and riding bicycle, efforts he said he began so he could join his friends in several adventure vacations. Sam also participated in the two-day Hilly Hundred bicycle ride in southern Indiana.

Sam and three friends from dentistry school began traveling to Canada on fishing trips years ago, but when they approached the age of 40, they began planning more exotic trips.

Their first challenge was climbing Mt. Kilamanjaro in 1989.

“We all made it to the top,” he said.

Then two years later the quartet planned a canoe trip into the Arctic area of Alaska in the Noatak River without any guide or cell phones. Sam and his partner capsized the first day, he said, but they survived the trip and met the pilot who flew them back to civilization two weeks later.

Their third adventure was traveling in a portion of a river in Peru that is part of the Amazon system in 1995.

The fourth trip the men took was to Chile where they hiked in Patagonia and also took a side trip down to a Chilean scientific research station on Antarctica.

In recent years, Sam explained, the four friends have taken more civilized trips, taking their wives and staying in hotels.

For New Year’s Eve, the four couples met for a celebration in Columbus, he said.

Sam and Maggie enjoy traveling together and this past year went to Oregon for a wedding, where they also spent time touring that area.

In recent years they have been working to update a cottage in northern Michigan that has been in Maggie’s family for many years.

The whole family can enjoy the Michigan cottage, she said, and the couple now stays closer to their home and their grandchildren, who are all in Indiana.