Cullen Timmons was born at Saint Mary’s, the hospital where he now works as an Emergency Room Doctor with ACES (Athens Clarke Emergency Specialists). As a child, Cullen attended Athens Montessori, St. Joseph’s, Clarke Middle and Clarke Central High School. He graduated from the University of Georgia where he studied Chemistry, Genetics and History. He went on to attend University of Virginia School of Medicine.
Cullen did his medical residency at Vanderbilt University before moving back to Athens. Cullen is the current Chair of the Athens Area Homeless Shelter Board of Directors. He lives in Cobbham with his 13 koi fish, and is the proud godfather of his mom’s new schnoodle puppy.
What do you love most about the work you do?
I think working in the ER is perfect for me because you see a little bit of everything. You never really know what’s coming through the door. We don’t get a lot of trauma patients at Saint Mary’s but we get a lot of everything else. So we see heart attacks, strokes, typical stuff. We also see a lot of social ails– homelessness, drug use, even elder abuse and neglect. But then you also get random fun things like orthopedic injuries, pediatric cases, OB cases. It keeps you on your toes. So I think from a work standpoint that’s probably what I enjoy the most. My schedule is also very nice, where I get a lot of time off. I get to have a lot more control of my schedule even though I work a fair amount of nights or weekends I can kind of block off time for things that I love like travel, fishing, hiking, camping, that kind of stuff
What do you like to do in and around Athens when you aren’t working?
I golf a lot, I’m a member at Jennings Mill Country Club. I try to get out there at least once a week. I go to the gym a fair amount at Athens Health & Fitness. My dad and I have a hunting lease about an hour away, so in the fall we go and occasionally do some deer hunting over there. I like to jot up to the mountains when I can, up towards the North Carolina South Carolina borders, and do some hiking and fishing up there. In Athens, I recently started going to Cutter’s happy hour on Monday afternoons and playing Golden Tee– it’s a golf video game. But, anything from just going for a walk, going to The Lark, or going for a run down Milledge, there’s a lot to do when the weather is nice like it is right now. Oh and of course football games, I usually travel to one or two away games a year with my college buddies in addition to most home games, Go Dawgs!
If you could see any band–anywhere, dead or alive, time travel etc– who would you see and where?
Well, I went to the Obama Inauguration where they had a concert with just everybody– Springsteen, U2, Jay-Z, Beyonce, Coldplay. Everybody ever. That was pretty amazing. But if I could go back in time, I think I would say Creedence Clearwater Revival during their heyday in like ‘67 or ‘68. I don’t know where I’d see them, but any kind of outdoor venue where they were playing I think would be perfect.
What advice would you give your younger self?
I think I would say to not sweat the small stuff as much. Focus more on being a better person, and enjoying life and not stressing so much about the little day-to-day tests or the details. Just try to enjoy yourself and be kind to yourself more.
Do you have a favorite book? Or, one you find yourself often referencing or gifting?
I used to say A Confederacy of Dunces, but I haven’t read it in a really long time. I think my current favorite book may be Catch 22.
What about a favorite movie?
My favorite movie is Blazing Saddles. I discovered it in high school and a couple of my good friends– they still live here, Alexander Stephens and Lawrence Jones– we all got our wisdom teeth out senior year and took turns going to each other’s houses when one of us was down and watching Blazing Saddles with Chick-fil-a milkshakes. Ever since then I’ve probably seen it a hundred times and can pretty much quote the whole movie.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?
There is this little French Island, Réunion, down in the Indian Ocean, that looks really cool. It looks like a place that just shouldn’t exist anywhere in the world– like rainforests in the middle of the ocean. I think from an animal perspective and a hiking and outdoorsy perspective that would probably be amazing.
If you could put any message on a billboard, what would it be?
Probably “Accidents Happen.” I love those billboards, I think they’re funny and get the point across. So yeah, I would just do another more Emergency Room focused version of “Accidents Happen.”
If you could have lunch with anyone, dead or alive, who would it be and where?
I think Alexander the Great. I would just love to know more about what drove him, who he was and what made him do the things he did. Obviously, by today’s standards he’s a fairly evil person. But I think the norms of behavior, monarchy, conquering, even sexuality were very interesting back then and that would be an interesting conversation, and just how he did all the things he did in his very short lifespan. We’d eat somewhere in Mykonos or something.
What three words or phrases come to mind when you think of the word home?
A place where you’re comfortable, and not anxious. A place of belonging, where you feel like you fit in. A safe place. I think that’s what Athens Area Homeless Shelter strives for– to give our clients not just a shelter, but a home. A place where they have some pride in the way they are living, where they don’t feel anxious about their location. We strive really hard to do that, so I think it fits quite well. That’s sort of what Athens has always been to me. There’s only really a couple of places in the world where I’ve felt really at home, and this is one of them. You just feel like you belong.
