After serving as a medic in the U.S. Army from 1945-47, Aulick decided to make medicine his career. After finishing his service in the military, he went to Loma Linda University in California. He married his high school sweetheart, Ruth, in 1948, and they both graduated from college in 1949, he with a bachelor of Science degree in chemistry, and Ruth with a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing.
Six years later, in 1955, Aulick completed his medical training and moved with his wife and their two daughters and one son to Belgrade where he started a medical practice. After finding a lot on Lake Koronis less than two years later, they moved to Paynesville in 1957 with the intention of setting up a private practice.
One day, over a noon hour, Aulick made a visit to Dr. Ray Lindeman and Lindeman's partner, Dr. Clifford Meyer. After a ten-minute discussion and a handshake, Aulick became a member of the Paynesville Clinic. In a letter written to the Paynesville Area Health Care System staff, Aulick stated, “It was not always easy, but it was always pleasant.”
As a family practitioner, Aulick performed medical duties that included something of everything. He commented that as a family physician, approximately 90 percent of his patient's treatment was performed by himself; the other 10 percent he referred to specialists.
Bev Mueller, Paynesville Area Health Care System's assistant administrator, commented, "Dr. Aulick was always nice to work with; he practiced good medicine. If you were the nurse on call, you knew he would always be available."
Aulick has had many memorable times throughout his years with the Paynesville Area Health Care System, running the full range of human emotion from joy and humor to tragedy.
He has seen the medical field advance by leaps and bounds throughout his more than 40 years as a physician, and sees medical technology changing more every year. He mentioned that the changes are indescribable. One example he gave related to the different types of medicines that are available to patients today.
Medicines that doctors rely on today, various heart medications, for example, weren't even discovered when Aulick began his medical career. He commented that when he became a doctor, many patients died that could have lived even ten more years if the medications had been available then.
Aulick commented that young doctors today live in a very different world. They have more and better resources to learn from than doctors had in the 1950s.
Regarding his many years as a family physician in Paynesville, Aulick said, "I've never dreaded going to work in the morning; that's worth a lot."