One November day when I was in my mid-20s, I found myself driving my car into a large parking lot on the campus of Memphis State University. I wasn’t feeling well and I was headed to the university’s free clinic.

The clinic’s resident physician was Dr. Black. I had visited the clinic a few times, but I’m not sure that he had ever treated me. If you showed up with your student ID and said you were sick, a nurse would fill out a form and give you some aspirins.

As far as I could tell, that was about all the clinic did – but it fulfilled a really important function to the university’s 20,000 stud...