Dr. Richard E. Eby D.O.

California has lost one of its leading osteopathic physicians with the death December 26 of Richard E. Eby, DO. A memorial service will be held for Dr. Eby at 3 p.m. on Th ursday, January 30, in the Amphitheater II of the Health Sciences Center at Western University of Health Sciences, 209 E. Second St., Pomona. A reception will follow. Please RSVP to 909-469-5379. Dr. Eby, a nationally recognized osteopathic physician, worked with a group of other DOs in the 1960s to early 1970s that led in 1974 to the California Supreme Court overturning Proposition 22 - a referendum passed by California voters in 1962 that removed power from the Board of Osteopathic Examiners to issue li censes to new applicants. He was one of several DOs who formed the first board of directors of the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific, which has since grown to Western University of Health Sciences, in Pomona. He was a co-founder of the Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons of California, which honored him with its Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999. Dr. Eby also was president of the Kansas City College of Osteopathic Medicine from 1963-66. Dr. Eby was a trustee emeritus of Western Universit y's board of trustees at the time of his death and he and his family have been significant financial supporters during the last 25 years. Born in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on June 26, 1912, Dr. Eby attended Wheaton College in Illinois, where he met his first wife, Maybelle. He attended the former College of Osteopathic Physicians and Surgeons in Los Angeles (class of 1937) and the couple moved to Pomona in 1942 where Dr. Eby set up practice and co-founded the former Park Avenue Hospital in 1943. His li fe took a profound change in direction in 1972 after a headfirst fall from a third-story balcony on a visit to Chicago. Dr. Eby described the accident to Western University students on his last visit to campus in 1999, telling them he had no pulse and had been declared dead. He told students that, upon waking, he decided to devote his life to telling the world of his healing. He eventually sold Park Hospital and, with Maybelle, traveled the world as an evangelist. Dr. Eby wrote several best-selling books on his experience and was often a featured guest on Christian television programs in the U.S. and abroad. Maybelle passed away in 1986 and Dr. Eby married Barbara Bissell Eby in 1988. They continued evangelical work together from their home in Victorville. In addition to Barbara, Dr. Eby is survived by his son, Walter, and daughter, Carol Good; five grandchildren; six great-grandchildren; two nephews; a niece; and his sister, Helen Lowe. The family has asked that In lieu of flowers, donations be made to the university in Dr. Eby's honor. Please call Laura Wensley, director of annual giving, at 909-469-5678 for more information.