St. Joe doctor, innovator dies
Please note—this article originally appeared in the January 16, 2009 edition of the The Journal Gazette. Original Web site linkRobert Voorhees led burn clinic
Holly Abrams
Dr. Robert J. Voorhees, the Fort Wayne physician known for his work at the St. Joseph Hospital Regional Burn Center and his compassion for patients, died Thursday at Parkview Noble Hospital in Kendallville. He was 80.
Voorhees founded the burn center's outpatient clinic in 1989 after being appointed director of the center four years earlier. Upon his retirement in 2003, Voorhees had practiced medicine for 52 years, most of that time in the city.
The outpatient clinic now sees an average of 13,000 to 15,000 patients a year, said Sheryl Mourey, director of burn and wound services for St. Joseph Hospital. Mourey worked alongside Voorhees for more than a decade after meeting him in 1991.
"(He) was probably one of the most compassionate, caring physicians you would ever meet," she said. "He transformed our burn care."
Voorhees' youngest daughter, Suzanne Reecer of Fort Wayne, followed in her father's footsteps — along with three other siblings — by pursuing a career in medicine. She described her father as humble.
"He just made (patients) feel like they were taken care of and — was very good at making people feel like they were special," said Reecer, a physician's assistant at Lutheran Hospital.
Reecer said her father died of complications from Alzheimer's disease.
Mourey described Voorhees as soft-spoken and gentle.
"People trusted him. They did what he said to do," she said. "He spent the time that it took (to help people)."
Before working in the burn center, Reece said, her father was an emergency room physician at St. Joseph Hospital.
Voorhees, who was born in Fort Wayne, was a 1951 graduate of Loris College in Dubuque, Iowa. He received his medical degree from St. Louis University School of Medicine in 1955.
Voorhees was an Air Force veteran and was stationed in Japan until 1958. He returned to Fort Wayne to begin practicing medicine full time.
A devout Catholic, Voorhees was an avid photographer and enjoyed playing golf, making his own golf clubs, the outdoors and gardening, his daughter said.
Voorhees was also a recipient of the Sagamore of the Wabash, the highest honor given by the Indiana governor, and he was a past president of the American Heart Association in Fort Wayne.
Voorhees was preceded in death by his wife, Liz. He is survived by seven children and 16 grandchildren.
A funeral Mass will be at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday at St. Vincent DePaul Catholic Church, 1502 E. Wallen Road, with calling one hour prior.
Calling at D.O. McComb and Sons Pine Valley Funeral Home will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday with a 4:30 p.m. vigil.
