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Autobiographical Obituary

Below is Dad's obituary that he wrote, and we, his kids have finished for him.
Long Version

The Great Creator of the Universe called Hubert Alton Dame, MD, FACS home on August 20, 2014 to be with him forever.

Hugh was born in Brockton, MA on September 12, 1931, the first child of the late Hubert Rowe Dame and the late Catherine Olive Hutchins. The family soon followed the sun to California during the Great Depression where his father, a carpenter, struggled to sustain his new family. He graduated from Richmond Union High School in Richmond, California in 1948, a three-sport athlete. He served in the US Marine Corps from 1948-1950, and US Army Infantry from 1950-1953. He fought in Korea from 1951-1952 and was awarded a Purple Heart in 1952 for combat wounds incurred near Kumwha, Korea. After the Korean War, he attended West Contra Costa College, where he earned his A.A. Degree. In 1956, he graduated from La Sierra College with a B.A. In 1959, he attended medical school at Loma Linda University, graduating with his M.D. Degree in 1964. Following his internship, he practiced medicine as a general practitioner (GP) in Auburn, California for four years before returning to the academic world in South Carolina where he specialized in general surgery, became the chief resident at Spartanburg General Hospital, and finished his residency in 1973--receiving his American Board of Surgery certification in 1974. He was shortly thereafter elected to Fellowship in the American College of Surgeons (FACS) in 1976.

He also taught surgery in England at the University of Newcastle-on-Tyne, the University of South Carolina, and the University of Florida before entering private practice in California.

He was a man of vast curiosity and wide interests. Golf was his main avocational interest and he wrote golf columns for newspapers and magazines as well as for the Internet for over 20 years (aka Sandy Bunker). He was a private pilot, aeromedical examiner and a life-long devotee of aviation having also inspired his son to become a private pilot. Later in life, he attended several college courses in geology where he was inspired by his great college geology professor, George Wheeldon, in order to learn the specifics of creation and to understand the earth..

He had two undefinable qualities that he himself never quite understood. The first quality was focused leadership. In the military he made rank rapidly, making five promotions in thirteen months. He was president of the student association in college and president of his senior class. He was also president of the flying club in college. In residency training, he was appointed chief resident in only his third year and continued to the end of his training years. Later, he was elected president of his military reunion group. The second quality was indefatigability. He studied unthinkable hours for nearly sixteen years running. After becoming a surgeon he worked hours, often beyond his endurance, treating the sick and injured. The downside of all that dedication was a series of heart crises starting in 1979 and culminating in his death from congestive heart failure.

He is survived by his loving wife, Iris Annette Ogle whom he married in 1953; Two children, his son and daughter in law Stephen Gregory Dame and Deberah Lynn Dame of Everett, WA, and a daughter, Susan Jennifer Colliflower of Liberty Lake, WA; four grandchildren, Kimberly Dame, Jennifer Dame, Bradley Colliflower, and Stephen Colliflower, brother, Bruce Dame of Boston, MA and a sister, Joan McDaniel, of Oroville, CA.

He will be interred with a military funeral in the Spokane, Washington Veterans Administration cemetery at Medical Lake on Thursday, September 4, 2014 at 10:30 AM.

In lieu of flowers, charitable donations can be made to www.hospiceofspokane.org or Outward Bound Veterans Programs http://www.outwardbound.org/veteran-adventures/outward-bound-for-veterans/

Susan Colliflower

Added on August 28, 2014
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