Dr. Cecil Robertson Glass

Dr. Cecil Glass was born July 23, 1926, to Cecil Robertson Glass and Mary Morgan Ward Glass, in Marlin, Texas. He graduated Valedictorian from Marlin High School in the Class of 1943. He was in the Undergraduate Pre-Med program at The University of Texas, Austin from 1943 to 1945.

Dr. Glass served in the U.S. Navy from June 1944 to December 1945. He was again on active duty from July 1949 until December 1952 as Lieutenant, Medical Corps, US Navy Reserve.

Cecil applied and was accepted into the Navy V-12 Officer Training Program in 1944. The V-12 was a college program for high school graduates who had the potential to become officers in the United States Navy or Marine Corps during World War II. The end of war in 1945 ended the GI bill with the Navy. Luckily, the State of Texas had a GI bill that would share the cost of college or graduate school. In the summer of 1945 he was assigned to Norman, OK Naval Hospital, a psychiatric hospital filled mostly with veterans who returned from the war suffering from “Shell Shock” or what we now call PTSD.

In February 1946 he started medical school at Camp Wallis north of Houston. The V-12 program had a 90-hour limit so he transferred to UT Galveston to join their accelerated medical school program. He earned a Medical Degree from the UT Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas in 1949. He took 2 years and 8 months to complete medical school.

On May 2, 1946, Cecil’s father died after a long illness related to kidney failure.

Cecil went into Navy intern program as Lieutenant Junior Grade with $100 bonus. He moved to Seattle to join a rotating internship program at Kings County Hospital System, The University of Washington, Seattle 1949-1950. At the completion of his internship, he then moved to San Diego, CA to work at the dispensary at Mare Island Naval Hospital and was there until June 25, 1950 when the Korean War began. Subsequently, the Navy re assigned him to Marine Surgical Team known as the “Golden Hours Team,” referring to the team’s goal of getting the seriously wounded to advanced care within a few hours to greatly increase their survival rate – something learned during the previous war.

On September 15, 1950, Cecil was aboard the Navy’s Landing Ship/Tank (LST) 611 on September 15 for the 1st Marine Division’s invasion just south of Inchon, South Korea. Once ashore, he was transferred to the 1st Marine Division as a member of SURGICAL TEAM #2 , COMPANY C, FIRST MEDICAL BATTALION, FIRST MARINE DIVISION, Fleet Marine Force. He subsequently accompanied the wounded to Yokosuka Naval Hospital in Japan in December 1950.

Lieutenant Helen Rickard had been Head Nurse of the Sick Officers Quarters at Yokosuka Naval Hospital since 1950. Cecil volunteered to help with a wounded soldier who was reluctant to submit to taking medication or some such thing. He was rewarded for this heroic action by having a chance to meet and get to know Helen. They were married in Japan on April 6, 1951 first in a religious ceremony in Yokohama and thereafter in a civil ceremony in Yokosuka, Japan.

In May 1951, Cecil departed Yokohama for the U.S. on a ship transporting convalescing U.N. wounded troops home to Turkey, Greece, Belgium and Holland via Suez canal. After leaving Holland, he returned on the now-empty transport ship to the states via Brooklyn, NY.

After returning from the Korean Conflict, Helen and Cecil reunited in San Diego where their first child, Scooter was later born. From there they moved to Galveston to allow Cecil to complete his residency in Anesthesiology at UTMB, Galveston, Texas (1953 to 1955). Bill was born in Galveston in January of 1954.

Drs. B.C. Darnell and E.R. Bebeau actively encouraged Cecil to consider coming to join their anesthesiology practice in Beaumont, TX where they were absolutely swamped with work. Cecil had been looking at hospitals in El Paso, Midland, and Temple, TX. Cecil and Helen weighed their options and decided to do go to Beaumont in 1955. There, Drs. Darnell, Bebeau and Glass formed a partnership in Anesthesiology which eventually became Anesthesia Associates of Beaumont, TX. In Beaumont, Cecil and Helen had three more children; John in 1956, Frances in 1958, and Mary in 1961.

Dr. Glass retired from practice in 1992. He was American Board-certified in Anesthesiology, a member of the Jefferson County Medical Society, The Texas Medical Association, the American Medical Association, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists where he served a President from 1975 to 1976. Dr. Glass was a member of the congregation of Saint Andrew’s Church for over fifty years, and he had served as a Deacon, Eder, Trustee, and a Director of the Saint Andrew’s Presbyterian Church Foundation Board.

Throughout their lives together, Cecil and Helen loved to travel. Taking kids on ski trips, touring the western United States in a station wagon, and later in retirement travelling abroad and supporting the cruise line industry with their many close friends from Beaumont. He and Helen were happily married for 44 years and 9 months. Helen died on January 6, 1996.

Dr. Glass married Mitzi M. LaPorte, a widow, on May 3, 1997. Mitzi Glass died on September 16, 2012 in Dallas, Texas where she and Cecil had moved in July 2012.

Cecil lived at The Tradition Assisted Living in Dallas for the last few years of his life. His family would especially like to thank his caregivers, who tirelessly worked to make him comfortable during his last days.

Cecil was predeceased by his wife, Helen, and his sister, Mary Morgan Sullivan. He is survived by his five children: Cecil Robertson Glass (Scooter) and his wife Andrea, William Ward Glass, John Rickard Glass and his wife Heidi, Helen Frances Tappero and her husband Jordan, and Mary Meriwether Monahan and her husband Tom. There are currently eight grandchildren and six great grand-children.

A Celebration of Life Service will be held at Ted Dickey West Funeral Home. Interment of his remains will follow at the family plot at Calvary Cemetery in Marlin, TX where he will forever rest in peace alongside Helen.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Saint Andrews Presbyterian Church of Beaumont, Texas.