Dianne Cherie Parkhurst Koch Tracy, M.D.

Born: May 5, 2023
Current Age: 45
Position: Tracy family physician, CMO of International Rescue, Jeff Tracy’s second wife

A Southern girl through and through, Dianne Koch Tracy has seen hardship in her life and has persevered over it. The only daughter and oldest child of Garrett and Elisabeth Parkhurst, she was always a leader, whether at home with her brothers, Jared and Douglas, or at school, where she excelled in both the arts and the sciences. Dianne earned degrees with honors from the Medical University of South Carolina, specializing in both family medicine and emergency medicine and became certified in both specialties. She earned her license to practice medicine from the State of South Carolina and through Doctors Without Borders.

After completing her residencies, she spent 6 months on the coast of west Africa, treating people in clinic settings with her uncle, Dr. Andrew Carmichael of Mercy Hospital in Los Angeles. As part of that experience, Dianne had to obtain her private pilot’s license and has kept up the license ever since. Upon her return from Africa, she took a position as an emergency room physician at St. Francis Family Hospital in her hometown of Greenville, South Carolina.

Despite being abandoned by her father at age 9, she has managed to forge good relationships with good men, in particular, Richard Allen Koch, her first husband and lover. They were married on August 17, 2050 and four years later had their only daughter, Cherie. Two boys, Alexander and Tyler, quickly followed, and the family lived happily until tragedy struck.

On March 22, 2063, a terrorist bomb blew up part of the building where Rick, a supervisor for the US Customs Service, worked. Rick was among those killed in the blast, and a newly-widowed Dianne found that her life had changed forever. Burdened down with grief, she spiralled into a depression, one so deep that her mother, Elisabeth, made her promise not to leave her children without a mother. Prodded into counseling by both mother and uncle, she regained her emotional equilibrium and pulled out of the depression. With hard work and the unflagging help of her mother, she managed to raise her children, keeping them in the private school that they had attended, and doing her best to be both father and mother to them.

She met Jeff Tracy through the auspices of her uncle Andrew. Jeff, an old friend of Andrew’s, asked him for referrals, saying he was looking for a new resident physician for his family. Andrew, realizing that Jeff’s qualifications fit Dianne almost exactly, gave Jeff her name. Setting up an appointment, Jeff Tracy soon knew that this woman, even encumbered as she was with children, would make both an excellent family physician and, eventually, a fine Chief Medical Officer for International Rescue. Dianne took the challenge and moved her family to Tracy Island to live. Within a year, Jeff and Dianne had fallen for each other and were married on October 23, 2066. Jeff then adopted Dianne’s children in early 2067, making them legally his own.

Dianne is a strong-willed woman who is used to taking care of herself and those around her. She tends to tackle problems head on and doesn’t always have the most tactful ways of putting things. When deprived of sleep, she is overly sensitive, short-tempered and snarky, but usually has an even emotional keel. Her nurturing ways often lead her to take on projects for which she is not suited or does not have the necessary time. She has a romantic nature and believes in the power of touch to calm and comfort. At work she is upbeat and professional, with a compassionate bedside manner. Her southern drawl comes more to the fore when angry or stressed (or flirty). She suffers from a moderate form of claustrophobia, and does not hold her liquor well.

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