Robert “Bob” John Demuth of Portland, Oregon passed away at age 93 on January 16, 2024.

“It’s not how good your grades are, it’s how you account for your time.” Bob was born on June 14, 1930 to Erna and Ray Demuth in Long Island, New York. He graduated from Sewanhaka High School in Flora Park, N.Y. in 1947 and went on to study at Hobart College, where he was a member of the Druid Honor Society and Kappa Sigma Fraternity. Bob played on the basketball, soccer, football, wrestling and lacrosse teams in high school and college and was inducted into the Hobart College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006. 

After graduating from Hobart in 1951 with a Bachelor of Arts Degree and a minor in Chemistry, Bob signed up for admission to the Naval Officers Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island as a Seaman Recruit. He was assigned to the Destroyer USS Blue, DD744 and served as the Chief Engineer (Lieutenant Junior Grade), during the Korean War from 1952 to 1955. After completing 4 years of active duty, he served an additional 6 years as a reserve officer. 

While on leave in Long Beach, California during his first 4 years in the Navy, he attended a party where he met the love of his life, Mary Meyers. Eight months later, they married in Mary’s hometown, Milwaukee, Wisconsin. After their honeymoon, Bob attended medical school at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York. He then completed a residency in general surgery at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, N.C., followed by a residency in plastic surgery at the University of Rochester in New York. In 1966, he joined a private practice as a plastic surgeon in Erie, Pa. where he stayed for 9 years and raised a family of 5 children with Mary. They celebrated their 68th anniversary in March of 2023. 

Bob left his private practice in Erie to teach plastic surgery at the University of Texas at Dallas. He moved his family to Richardson, Texas in 1975 and lived there for 4 years. In 1979, he moved to Portland, Oregon to help establish the plastic surgery unit at the Oregon Health Sciences University, where he remained in academic practice until he retired at the age of 61 in 1991.

After Bob retired, he traveled around the world with Northwest Medical Teams, Project Hope and Rotaplast to teach other surgeons and provide volunteer surgical care. He specialized in cleft lip and palate deformities, burn contractures, upper extremity and hand problems and birth or trauma defects. Bob made 53 trips to 25 countries, performing thousands of surgeries at no cost to patients. 

 

Bob served as a member of the Hobart College Board of Trustees for many years and was President of the American Association of Hand Surgeons from 1989-90. He enjoyed delivering meals to seniors for the Meals on Wheels program, reading to children with S.M.A.R.T in Portland and was a devoted member of the East Portland Rotary Club.  

Throughout his life, he enjoyed many hobbies: fly fishing, sailing, painting, crabbing, clamming, gardening, golfing, skiing and tennis. He was a member of the West Hills Racquet Club for 37 years and played tennis regularly twice a week until age 86. Late in life, he created a men’s book club which he named The Geezers. 

Bob was predeceased by his brother Raymond Demuth and grandson Gordon Dowd. He is survived by and will be dearly missed by his wife Mary, children Steve, Lynn (Averbeck), Sue (Neuer), Tom and Melissa (Dowd), 7 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren. 

A private memorial gathering will be held in the Spring at his beloved beach house in Neskowin, Oregon. In lieu of gifts the family suggests donation to the East Portland Rotary Foundation, PO Box 14664, Portland, OR 97293.