Robert Dunlap, M.D. (S ’53)

Robert W. Dunlap, M.D., age 92, died on July 1, 2012, at the Dunlap cottage on the Great Sacandaga Lake in upstate New York, surrounded by family.

Bob was the fourth in a family of five children, all born in Chefoo, China, where his father, also an M.D, and mother were Presbyterian missionaries.

The family returned to the United States in 1928 and settled in Washington, Pa.

A 1942 graduate of Wooster College, Bob went on to study at Western Reserve Medical School as part of the ASTP (Army Specialized Training Program) during World War II, and after a one-year internship at Cleveland City Hospital he served in the Army Medical Corps at the VA Hospital in Tuscaloosa, Ala., for two years. During this time, he married Virginia (Jinny) Griffith whom he met in Cleveland, Ohio.

Bob completed a five year Fellowship in Surgery at the Mayo Clinic, during which time Jinny and Bob became friends of Dr. Paul and Louise Spray (of Oak Ridge). After practicing surgery for nine years in Amsterdam, N.Y., the family moved to Lahore, Pakistan, where he practiced surgery and became Medical Director at the United Christian Hospital.

Soon after a visit from the Sprays in Lahore, the family made the decision to move to Oak Ridge in 1971, where Bob first set up a solo surgical practice and then joined with Drs.

Bigelow, Hendrix and Stanley for 10 years.

Foreign medical mission work lured him again, this time to Sudan for several years, followed by another several years back in Pakistan in the 1980s. Jinny joined him in Lahore for some of this time until June 1988 when they returned to Oak Ridge. After retiring, he was involved as a volunteer in a number of medical mission hospitals in Africa, including Malawi, Cameroon and Kenya.

Bob sang in the ORCMA Chorus for many years, and served on the ORCMA Board. He was a member of First Presbyterian Church where he was a Ruling Elder and a loyal choir member for 40 years, until recently. He had a great love of music and enjoyed composing and arranging (mostly choral) music during much of his lifetime.

He is survived by his wife of nearly 62 years, Virginia Griffith Dunlap (Jinny); sons, Scott (Michele), Doug (Irene Lieban) and Mark; and daughter, Elaine (Rick Leveille); seven grandchildren; three step-grandchildren; one great grand child; and two step grandchildren.