Dr. Stephen C. Textor

Dr. Stephen C. Textor, 75, passed away at home surrounded by his wife and family on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, in North Central Florida near Ocala. He was born on June 3, 1948, in Denver, Colorado, to Dr. Jerome Textor, M.D. and Margaret Sias. He lived in Colorado until age 10 and then moved to Minnesota where his father practiced medicine. Stephen grew up in Anoka, Minnesota, where he played hockey and won a high school football state championship as an offensive guard. After high school he moved to the west coast, where he graduated from Stanford University in 1969 and from the University of California, Los Angeles School of Medicine in 1973. The day before graduating medical school, Stephen earned his pilot's license. He fondly described aviation as his favorite hobby, observing that he had been a pilot longer than he had been a doctor. He operated and maintained a 1973 Beechcraft V35B Bonanza with friends in Minnesota for more than 30 years, flying over 2,600 hours as pilot-in-command. Stephen is remembered for his passion for learning, trying new things, and being physically active, all of which led him to many adventures: in 1977, for instance, he was recognized as a finalist for the NASA Mission Specialist program.
Stephen moved to Boston, Massachusetts in 1973, for five years of training following his graduation from medical school. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at Boston City Hospital, and then his clinical fellowships in hypertension and nephrology at Boston University. There, he met his wife, Susan L. Bertram, R.N., M.S.N., a nurse on the university hospital surgical unit that provided care for transplant patients. They married on January 6, 1979, and shortly thereafter their travels took them abroad. Stephen was a Fellow of the Swiss National Science Postdoctoral Foundation, and from 1979 to 1980, they lived in Lausanne, Switzerland. After returning to the U.S., they lived in Cleveland, Ohio, for four years while Stephen worked at Cleveland Clinic, then in 1984 they moved to Claremont, California, where Stephen worked as an internist at City of Hope Hospital. They moved to Rochester, Minnesota, in 1988, where they lived until 2021, throughout Stephen's 33-year career with the Mayo Clinic.
Stephen's tenure at Mayo involved a synergy of both clinical practice and research. He valued his role as an attending physician, providing excellent clinical care and educating medical students and fellows. His clinical practice involved both inpatient and outpatient care and he specialized in kidney transplantation and management of complicated hypertension. His career-long research was directed at understanding the mechanisms of hypertension-partly inspired by his father's own struggle with high blood pressure-as well as modeling kidney disease and investigating methods for preventing and repairing injury to the kidney, especially related to vascular disease. With his research collaborators whom he cherished, he authored hundreds of papers on these topics, and in 2014, co-edited the textbook Renal Vascular Disease. Holding the academic rank of Professor of Medicine at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and Science and awarded teaching honors, Stephen taught and mentored research fellows in hypertension and transplantation. During retirement, he continued academic writing and lecturing about nephrology and hypertension, and continued as section editor of the medical publication UpToDate until the year of his death.
After retirement from the Mayo Clinic, Stephen frequently traveled between Minnesota and Florida, piloting his airplane and maintaining his lifelong friendships. He reminisced about the many adventures of which he was most fond and in which he continued to actively participate: white-water kayaking, canoeing in the Boundary Waters and kayaking on Lake Superior, helicopter skiing and backpacking in Alaska, rock-climbing in Joshua Tree and summiting Mount Whitney, decades of playing in weekly old-timers' hockey games, and world-wide travels with friends and family. In Florida, he most enjoyed playing golf with his wife Susan and their neighborhood friends. At the time of his death he had just taken a dance class and perfected the Country Waltz, which he danced with Susan around the living room of their home.
He was preceded in death by his parents and his sister, Susan M. Trombley (née Textor). He is survived by his loving wife of 45 years, Susan L. Bertram, R.N., M.S.N. Stephen leaves behind a legacy of family connections: his son, Lieutenant Colonel Matthew J. Textor, J.D. (Barbara N. Wold, J.D.) and two grandchildren (Charles and Eleanor); son, Kyle B. Textor, MBA; daughter, Dr. Lauren M. Textor, M.D., Ph.D.; sister-in-law, Carol Ann B. Allen (née Bertram) (Frank D. Allen, J.D.); and brother-in-law, A. Theodore ("Ted") Bertram, Jr. (Eileen A. Bertram, née Pryzgoda).
Donations in lieu of flowers may be made to the Gift of Life Transplant House (Rochester, MN) by visiting https://gift-of-life.org/make-a-donation/.
A memorial will be held from 1-4 p.m. Sunday, June 23rd, 2024, in Rochester, Minnesota, at the Plummer House, 1091 Plummer Ln SW; another will be held from 2-4 p.m. Sunday, May 26th, 2024, at the Eisenhower Building, 3560 Buena Vista Boulevard, the Villages, Florida, 32163.
On-line condolences and the most up-to-date obituary can be found by visiting www.bankspagetheus.com. Arrangements are entrusted to Banks/Page-Theus Funerals and Cremations, 410 Webster St. Wildwood, FL.