Robert Westphal

Westphal, Robert
JERICHO, Vt. - Robert G. Westphal died peacefully on March 27, 2024, at McClure-Miller Respite House in Colchester, Vermont from complications of chronic lymphocytic leukemia after managing multiple health challenges for the last five years. He was a physician, scholar, teacher, musician, outdoorsman, writer, father, brother, grandfather, husband, and dear friend, and will be sorely missed.
Bob was born on January 21, 1940, in Troy, Ohio to George and Virginia Westphal. At a young age he was tragically separated from Virginia for 50 years. He was then raised by his father and loving stepmother, Ruth. After spending his earliest years in Pennsylvania and Ohio, he attended and graduated from high school in Hagerstown, Maryland. During his time in Hagerstown, he developed life-long friends and a love of choral, band, and classical music. He played the trumpet and carried it with him for decades before donating it for others to enjoy. Before attending college Bob joined the United States Navy and was trained and served as a Hospital Corpsman until 1961.
Bob graduated from the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he majored in English, and then attended Western Reserve Medical School, receiving his M.D. in 1969. He completed a two-year internship and residency at what was then the Medical Center Hospital of Vermont in Burlington, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Hematology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1971. He later obtained his M.P.H. from the University of New York, Albany and completed his residency in Preventive Medicine at the University and NYS Department of Health.
Bob poured his soul into his work and traveled far and wide to do it. He was an accomplished faculty member, professor, and researcher at UVM, with his work published in numerous peer-reviewed journals. The patients Bob cared for during this time - with hematologic diseases - would be remembered for their stories and their wins and losses for the rest of his life. Ever dedicated to improving the collection, quality, and appropriate use and supply of blood, Bob developed and directed the VT-NH Blood Services Center located in Burlington. In the early 1980s, he volunteered for three months at L'Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Desjardines, Haiti, an experience that affected him deeply. In 1992, he accepted a position as Medical Advisor for the Blood Programme at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Geneva, Switzerland. For this he traveled the world to assist nations in improving their own blood services operations. Returning to the United States in 1995, Bob worked for the American Red Cross Blood Services, New England Region, and then spent the rest of his career in public health in NYS. He was one of the lead physician administrators in Bioterrorism Preparedness at the NYS Department of Health on 9/11 and went on to become the first Director of the Center of Health Preparedness at the School of Public Health at the University of New York in Albany. After retirement Bob worked as a volunteer physician providing primary care at the Capital City Rescue Mission in Albany, N.Y.
Bob sought to balance the challenges of life as a physician with the help of his many beloved friends. Card games, fly fishing, hunting, playing his guitar, singing in a choir, golfing, and writing professionally and creatively each played a part. His time in a Grand Laker at Pierce Pond in Maine renewed his strengths and provided solace more than any other person or thing. For the last 27 years of his life his wife, Leslie, also softened life's blows and they spent their time together with good books, great food, time with family and friends, and the simplest things - listening for veeries, watching hummingbirds come to bee balm, taking long, quiet walks, and laughing at their many beloved but crazy dogs.
Bob is survived by his wife, Leslie, of Jericho, Vermont; his daughters, Kathryn Irish (Bruce) of Arnold, California, Kristin Westphal of Arlington, Virginia, and stepdaughter, Elisabeth Johnson (Daniel) of Jericho, Vermont; brothers, George (Dex) of Palm Coast, Florida and Christian of High Rolls, New Mexico; and grandchildren, Brendan Irish, and Frances and James Johnson. He is also survived by his first wife, and the mother of his daughters, Marjorie Westphal of South Burlington.
Bob generously donated his body to the Anatomical Gift Program at UVM. His family would like to thank the staff of the UVM Hospice, the entire staff of Maple Ridge Lodge in Essex, the McLure-Miller Respite House in Colchester, and his incredible friends for their help this last year. A celebration of Bob's life will be announced at a future date, likely sometime this summer. Arrangements are in care of Gifford Funeral Home. To send online condolences to his family please visit www.vtfuneralhomes.com.
To remember Robert please listen for the redwings in spring, find a quiet place to watch a few mayflies rise up out of the water, or listen to the Flower Duet. Among his last words were "find the things of beauty."