Donald Barbour MD, died at home after a long and satisfying life. He is survived by his family: Nancy, his wonderful wife (“the best thing that ever happened to me”) and his three children; Steven, Susan, and Karen. He also leaves behind his beloved grandchildren, Lucy, Jasper, Daisy, and Nic, his son-in-law David and family friend, Mark. Don wrote this review of his life and he wanted it shared after his death.

Donald’s extraordinary life began in Oakland. He was the low hurdle track race winner for two years at Piedmont High School. He graduated in 1937. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley in 1941. He was a member of The Delta Upsilon Fraternity in college and of NU Sigma NU in medical school where he was elected permanent class president.

In 1944, Donald graduated from medical school at the University of California, San Francisco and then interned at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital in Oakland, where he delivered 27 healthy babies and amputated the sixth toe of a patient in the hospital who was thrilled that he could finally wear normal shoes. He did three years of residency at UCSF.

 In 1945, Don joined the Navy, in which he served as a medical officer on the USS Monrovia, an attack transport. The ship set out from Portland, Oregon and traveled to the South Pacific, South China, Vietnam, Okinawa, Guam, and Iwo Jima in Japan in 1945 at the end of World War II. Don did his first and last appendectomy on the ship. He also became the ship’s barber when the regular barber was put in the brig.

After leaving the military, in 1947, Don began practicing medicine and, for a month, served as the physician for the San Francisco Symphony as it toured the United States and Canada with performances in 22 cities.

Don met the love of his life, Nancy Bristow, on a rafting trip on the American River. They married in 1950. He and Nancy lived in Paris, where Don was a Foreign Assistant at Hospital Broussais for a year in 1951.

They went camping in a field near the city of Nancy, pitching their tent after darkness. They awoke the next morning surrounded by signs warning of uncleared mines and were lucky to get back over the fence alive.

After traveling in Europe and North Africa, including skiing in Austria, Don and Nancy returned to the U.S. and lived in Boston for a year when Don trained at Good Samaritan Hospital at Harvard Medical Hospital.

Don was called back to military service in 1953 and had to leave Nancy and their new baby for two years while he was in the Marines as a Navy physician. The Marines were stationed in Otsu, near Kyoto, Japan. Don was in charge with setting up a nursing unit to treat soldiers infected with tsutsugamushi, otherwise known as “scrub typhus.”

When Don completed his service, he settled in Marin County, where he founded a medical practice with his brother, Allen Barbour, in 1954. He practiced internal medicine, specializing in cardiology for over thirty years. He shared the directorship of the first heart unit at Marin General Hospital.

Don’s practice thrived through his retirement at the age of seventy in 1989. He continued serving in the healthcare field for thirteen years on the Independent Review Board under the able Ms. Erica Heath. The IRB assessed clinical trials of medications and research.

Donald and Nancy traveled throughout their life together. They traveled to Africa, Mexico, the Galapagos Islands and throughout Europe. A lover of nature, he hiked, camped, scuba-dived along the California Coast, kayaked in the Pacific Northwest, and he and Nancy made bird watching trips to South America. Don’s travels took him many times to the Sierra with family and friends. He photographed wildflowers and swam in lakes and rivers. Don had many adventures on these trips. Once, in North Africa, he came upon a camel herder surrounded by his herd. They were chatting in French when suddenly the man grabbed Don violently by the shoulders and pushed him hard. Don was baffled until he learned why: a camel was about to bite him in the rear end.

Donald loved the water. He swam in the crashing waves at China Beach and, as a teenager, worked at a lifeguard at a swimming pool in Piedmont. In the winter of 1974, Don talked Nancy into kayaking to the Red Rock Island off the Richmond shore. As they were leaving, the sounds of a megaphone thundered across the water. “THIS IS THE COASTGUARD, WE NEED HELP.” Don and Nancy paddled to a sailboat, which was stuck in a mud bank. Tossing the Coastguard’s huge tow rope to the sailors, the coastguard freed the boat. Afterwards, back on shore, an announcement by the Coast Guard sounded over the San Francisco Bay. A deep voice sounded a message: “Thank you, kayakers!” Another time on a race to Angel Island from Sausalito, he and Nancy were extremely proud to win 2nd place. They hesitated to tell their friends that there were actually only two boats competing that day.

 Don also rode the rapids on California rivers and through the Grand Canyon on the Colorado. With his son, he built a kayak and they were often kayaking in Pt Reyes National Seashore. He went scuba diving off the coasts of California, Baja, and the Galapagos.

Over the years, Don had many interests. He made a serviceable home radio and communicated with people all over the world.  He also built his first workable computer—a Sinclair. He made a telescope through which he showed his family the stars and planets. Don also studied his hero, Ishi, the last known member of the Native American Yahi people, and he gave a talk about him at the University of California in San Francisco.

 Throughout his life, Don was most often found surrounded by stacks of books, papers, and files in his home office, where he read voraciously and worked. He also tended his vegetable garden. He belonged to a philosophy group, SIRS (Sons in Retirement), where he gave a talk on “How not to Fall after 80”.  He was their secretary for 13 years. In his last years he continued to read the Wall Street Journal, his medical journals and enjoyed emailing friends and acquaintances.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks for those who’d like to contribute to donate to the Sierra Club to which he was a member since 1948.

His family wishes to thank all his caregivers for the extraordinary care they provided to Don.