Eugene Francis Poutasse

Eugene Francis Poutasse M.D. Eugene Francis Poutasse M.D., retired, died on Tuesday, November 30, 2010, at the age of 92, in Nellysford, Virginia.

Born and raised in Weston, Massachusetts, with his siblings Esther and Charles, Eugene attended Harvard University and earned his M.D. in 1943.

An officer in he United States Naval Reserve Medical Corps, young Dr. Poutasse was attached to the Marine Corps stationed on Guam. When hostilities ended, he served as medical investigator on the team assembling evidence of war crimes committed by Japanese officers on the island of Chichi Jima.

Dr. Poutasse joined the Department of Urology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation in 1950, and pioneered surgical treatments for renal arterial disease and associated hypertension. In 1961, with a colleague, he was awarded the Amory Prize by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1963, he was a member of the surgical team that performed the first cadaver kidney transplant.

In 1963, Dr. Poutasse helped form the practice that has since become Devine Poutasse Fiveash, Associates, specializing in general, vascular and reconstructive urology, in Norfolk, Virginia, where he continued to perform surgery and publish professionally. He practiced medicine in Norfolk after moving his family to Nellysford, until he retired, the first time, in 1983.

For the next ten years, he worked with The Medical Society of Virginia Review Organization Inc., in its mission to maintain a high standard of medical care through professional peer review. He retired, a second time, from MSVRO in 1994.

Dr. Poutasse belonged to many professional organizations, including the Americal Urological Association, the American Congress of Urology, the Societe Internationale D'Urologie, and the Medical Society of Virginia. He was a fellow of the American Association of G.U. Surgeons and the American Academy of Science. He was Governor of the American College of Surgeons from 1963 until 1966; Chairman of the Tidewater Chapter of the National Kidney Foundation in 1970; President of the Tidewater Heart Association from 1970 until 1972. He served on the Boards of Directors for the Virginia Heart Association from 1967 until 1973 and the Norfolk, Virginia, Chamber of Commerce from 1968 until1971), and on the Board of Trustees of the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk, Virginia, from 1979 until 1983.

At home in Nellysford, Dr. Poutasse developed his third career as a master woodworker. His interest in antiques grew into restoration; restoration grew into original projects in wood. With characteristic thoroughness he collected wood, built a large, comfortable workshop, attracted appreciative clients and fellow woodworkers, and spent his later years building fine furniture and other objects of wood.

He always had an intense curiosity and the ability to immerse himself in the details of his many interests outside of medicine.

Along with his wife of 49 years, Catherine Arlene, Eugene Poutasse leaves sons, daughters and their partners, Robert Poutasse and Nancy Myerson of Simsbury, Connecticut; Charles Poutasse and Christine Healey of Concord, Massachusetts; Sarah Bent and Craig Thompson of Kansas City, Kansas; Marc and Allyson Poutasse of Norfolk, Virginia; Jacqueline Poutasse and Terri Sutryk of Virginia Beach, Virginia; Alice and Todd Frazier of Leesburg, Virginia; Sydney and Kenneth Gorby of Fishersville, Virginia; and Frances and Douglas Stacy of Tampa, Florida; his mother-in-law, Catherine; 29 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

He was predeceased by daughter, Andrea Glenn of Topeka, Kansas.

A funeral service will be held 11 a.m. Saturday, December 11, 2010, at Rodes United Methodist Church, 286 Avon Road, Afton, Virginia. A reception will follow at 402 Sawmill Creek Drive, Nellysford, Virginia.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Hospice of the Piedmont, 675 Peter Jefferson Parkway, Suite 300, Charlottesville, VA 22911 (www.hopva.org), the American Heart Association or a local food bank/pantry.


This obituary was originally published in the Daily Progress.