James Lambert (’74, MD ‘78) often starts his workday at 4 or 5 a.m., with a one-mile walk from his home to his office. He walks to exercise, to think and to evade. Lambert has to evade. If patients see his car parked out front, they come in, and his marathon day becomes a sprint. Lamber, 56, has been practicing medicine in and around Wayne and Duplin counties since 1981. He treats people who’ve known him since he was knee-high to a grasshopper. He cares for their children and grandchildren. He makes house calls. In an age when medical conglomerates rule, he is a country doctor, and part of a dying breed.