WALTER SOBBA

Walter L. Sobba, MD September 24, 1926 - November 10, 2013 Dr. Walter Sobba passed away in Peoria, AZ on November 10, 2013. Born in Fowler, KS, Walter attended Holy Cross Abbey & Abbey Catholic College Prep High School in Colorado. He was drafted while studying premed at Creighton University. While serving as a Navy Corpsman with a Combat Medic Unit in San Diego he was reassigned to Officers Training at the University of Idaho in Moscow. The rest of his unit went to Iwo Jima. Walter was discharged at the Naval Base in Bremerton. Upon completing medical school at Creighton University in Omaha, NE in 1951 he came to Tacoma. He interned at St. Joseph's Hospital, and in 1952 opened a General Medicine practice along with Dr. Darwin Marlatt. After 25 years he moved his practice to Fife. For 41 years he practiced family medicine, assisted in surgery and delivered more than 2,000 babies. Walter loved his family and extended family, the practice of medicine, his patients and his friends. He was passionate about fishing, golfing, classical music and raising roses. One of his roses won" Best of Show" at the 2013 Multicare Rose Show. After retirement in 1993 he fished as much as possible, was a member of Tacoma Country & Golf Club for 47 years and Westbrook Village Golf Club in Peoria, AZ. Walter was preceded in death by his son, Dr. David Sobba, who passed away in January 2013, and his granddaughter, Dianne Finklein, who passed away in January 2001. He is survived by his wife, Joan, daughters Christine Finklein (Terry), Brush Prairie, WA; Kathy Sobba, Winnipeg, Manitoba; Mary Wright, Peoria, AZ; and Dr. Anne Sobba-Higley (Rod), Wenatchee, sons Tom Sobba (Patty), Atlanta, GA; John Sobba, Seattle; and Danny Sobba (Diane), Fox Island, stepsons Michael and Robert Haggett, Tacoma, stepdaughter Robin Campain (Tony), Tacoma, brothers Robert and Irvin Sobba (Mary Helen), Fowler, KS, and Raymond Sobba (Judy), Eugene, OR, brother-in-law Pastor John Sullivan (Beti), Mexico--and many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Services were held in Peoria, AZ in November, and a "celebration of his life" will take place in Tacoma in the summer of 2014.