Richard Dean Heimbach

1935 - 2018

April 5, 1935 - February 22, 2018
Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Richard Dean Heimbach, MD, PhD passed away surrounded by family on February 22nd, 2018.

He was 82 years old.

Dr. Heimbach was a distinguished physician who made numerous advances in clinical hyperbaric medicine and its applications in medical, diving, and aviation care.

Born in Chicago, Illinois to Lucile Gottschalk Heimbach and Dr. Aaron Heimbach on April 5, 1935, Dr. Heimbach received his BA and MD at the University of Chicago, where he later returned for a residency in radiology. In 1962 he was drafted into the United States Air Force, through which he earned a PhD in Radiobiology at New York University, attended a residency in Aerospace Medicine at Brooks Air Force Base, Texas, and obtained a Masters in Public Health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Heimbach was board certified in Aerospace Medicine by the American Board of Preventative Medicine in 1974.

Aerospace Medicine and its related field, Hyperbaric Medicine, are both concerned with the body in extreme environments-at low pressure in the upper reaches of the atmosphere and at high pressure in the depths of the ocean.

Dr. Heimbach was well-suited to both professions-as a young man, he acquired a commercial pilot's license and later became a flight surgeon in the Air Force. In 1953, at age 17, he tested the first "Aqualung" imported into the United States. His uncle had procured the device and asked him to demonstrate its use in a documentary about a new sport called "SCUBA diving." Dean was an avid diver for decades after, becoming officially certified in 1975 after 22 years of diving, and incorporating his love for the sport into his medical practice.

With his mentor and former residency advisor Dr. Jefferson C. Davis, Dr. Heimbach established the USAF Hyperbaric Medicine Center at Brooks Air Force Base and was tapped as its Director of Medical Operations. In his role there, he created hyperbaric fellowships for physicians and nurses and authored numerous papers and textbook chapters, all of which helped make possible the creation of the hyperbaric medicine specialty.

In 1978, Dr. Heimbach became Director of the USAF Hyperbaric Medicine Center and remained in that role until he retired as a Colonel from the Air Force in 1982.

Upon military retirement, Dr. Heimbach entered private practice at Southwest Texas Methodist Hospital in San Antonio.

The team operated what was, at the time, the only civilian wound care and hyperbaric medicine facility outside a university setting in the South Central United States. In 1989, Dr. Heimbach became Medical Director of the center. He retired in 2000.

Dr. Heimbach was one of only two physicians to serve as President of both the Aerospace Medical Association (ASMA) and the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society (UHMS).

Though he was a brilliant doctor and a dedicated colleague, Dean was also a generous, deeply loved husband, father, grandfather, and friend. He married Jackie Heimbach, neé Williams, in 1982, merging their families (his daughters Leah, Marah, Rebekah, and Sarah and her children James and Karen) into a clan that proves family is less about blood than it is about the choices we make to care for one another.

Dean was known to his friends and family as a man who, despite his undeniable intellectual gifts and ambition, delighted in the simple pleasures of life. Though he grew up in the rarefied suburbs of Chicago, he loved little more than to go fishing with his wife's relatives on the lakes of Alabama. He savored rare steaks, celebrated his many grandchildren, danced to Willie Nelson, and laughed uproariously and without shame.

Dr. Richard Dean Heimbach is survived by his wife, Jackie; his brother Hal Lieberman; his daughter Leah Rodarti, her husband Joe, and their children Jeff, Matt, Jenna, and Dominic Rodarti, and their grandchildren Sophia and Jayden; and his daughter Marah Moore, her partner Sanjay Poovadan, and their children Aaron, Sam, and Alina Moore and Eli Cain.

He was preceded in death by his daughter Rebekah Stapleton and survived by her daughter Kristen Stapleton. He is also survived by his daughter Sarah Heimbach Wood; his stepson James Miller and his children, Easton and Bailey Miller; and his stepdaughter Karen Miller and her children, Abbey and Riley Francis.

Dr. Heimbach's memorial service will take place Friday April 27, 2018 at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in San Antonio, Texas, at 11:00am.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to Meals on Wheels San Antonio or Southern Poverty Law Center in Dr. Heimbach's name.