Norwich — Dr. Michael Morosky delivered his first baby as a medical student working for American Ambulance and had to be talked through it over the phone by a co-worker.

Morosky returned to his hometown Wednesday with a tally of 6,782 babies delivered over 40 years as an OBGYN physician.

Morosky, 67, of Glastonbury, chief of obstetrics and gynecology for the past 13 years at Johnson Memorial Hospital in Stafford Springs and head of the hospital's surgery department, was honored Wednesday as the 2017 recipient of the Norwich Rotary and Woman's City Club's Native Son Award.

Morosky was the 50th recipient of the award that is annually given to a person who grew up in Norwich and excels outside the local area. Past recipients have had careers ranging from medical to real estate, sports, education, journalism and even brewing. Morosky's classmate and best friend in the Norwich Free Academy Class of 1968 was Pete Slosberg, founder of Pete's Wicked Ale, the 2001 Native Son Award recipient.

Classmate best-selling author Wally Lamb was among the 100 people in attendance at Wednesday's luncheon at the Holiday Inn. Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Peggy Roberts McPherson, the 1988 Native Daughter Award recipient, also attended.

“There's no ifs, ands or maybes,” Gary Young said in his traditional poetic invocation at the start of the ceremony. “This guy has delivered over 6,000 babies.”

A typical OBGYN physician delivers 2,000 to 3,000 babies, Chris Jewell, chairman of the Greater Norwich Area Chamber of Commerce, pointed out.

Morosky recalled the days when the Norwich West Side was home to working-class immigrants, including his father's family, and those living on upper Broadway came from wealth, as his mother's family did.

Morosky rattled off names of grammar and high school teachers who taught him to love learning, that history and math could be fun and that physics, while not fun, was relevant.

Morosky was a medical student at the University of Connecticut when he walked into American Ambulance founder Ron Aliano's office and asked for a job. When he said he was a medical student, Aliano hired him on the spot. Seconds later, the phone rang, and the two raced out to Morosky's first call, a bad accident in Greeneville.

A station wagon driven by a 16-year-old boy, with five younger children in the car, narrowly missed hitting a car with an elderly couple. The station wagon careened down an embankment and crashed in a field below. No one was wearing a seat belt, but amazingly the injuries were relatively minor, Morosky said. The driver had a broken arm. One 6-year-old girl couldn't move her legs, but her injury was temporary.

Morosky and Aliano were carrying the girl on a stretcher board up the hill when her father jumped out of his truck and suffered a heart attack. They put the girl down, did CPR on the father, took him to the hospital first, returned for the girl, then the teen driver and one other injured girl. They returned for the elderly couple and then a fourth time for the other children.

“Mike, this is the worst accident I've ever taken care of,” Morosky recalled Aliano saying. “I hope you're not bad luck.”

Morosky's first baby delivery came one month later.

“I want you to imagine having a job where you get to see miracles happen every single day,” Morosky told his audience. “And the job becomes your passion and the more you do it, the more they pay you. And if you do it for 40 years, you get to come back to your hometown and they give you an award.”

Morosky, brothers Paul and Frank and sisters Carol and Tanya, children of parents Paul and Catherine Morosky, grew up at 372 Washington St. and attended Samuel Huntington Elementary School on West Town Street. His seventh-grade class was the first to attend the new Kelly Junior High School on Mahan Drive.

Norwich Superintendent Abby Dolliver, whose brother was in Morosky's NFA class, presented him with a photo of Kelly Junior High School "as it was,” she said. Dolliver also gave him a copy of a children's book she has been reading to students: “Change the World before Bedtime.”

“Actually,” Dolliver said, “delivering babies changes the world every minute, before bedtime and after bedtime.”

c.bessette@theday.com