Rhesa Lee Penn

Dr. Rhesa Lee Penn, Jr Dr. Rhesa Lee Penn, Jr. died on December 7, 2006 in Austin, Texas. He was born in Austin in 1922, where he grew up and attended school. Dr. Penn graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1943, and from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1945. Dr. Penn completed a residency in Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Maryland in 1951. He moved with his wife, Dorothy Elizabeth Penn (deceased in 1985), and children to Midland, Texas and established a private practice in Pediatrics, which he continued until 1965. Dr. Penn attended the University Of California School of Public Health at Berkeley in and obtained his Masters in Public Health, specializing in Maternal and Child Health. In 1966, Dr. and Mrs. Penn moved to the Pacific Northwest. Dr. Penn served as the Head of Maternal and Child Health Section in the Washington State Health Department. Dr. Penn also served as the Coordinator of Clinical Service, Clinical Training Unit at the Child Development and Mental Retardation Center at the University of Washington School of Medicine, 1969 to 1970. He joined the faculty of the University of Alabama in 1970 and served until 1972 as director of the Lawrence County Health Care Project of Moulton, Alabama, a special project of the Appalachian Regional Commission. Dr. Penn and his family moved to Oregon in 1972, where he served as the Manager of Maternal and Child Health Section in the Oregon State Health Division. He become Chief of Individual Health Services in 1983 and remained in that position until he retired in 1987. In retirement, Dr. Penn lived in Tualatin, Oregon and moved to Austin, Texas, following his marriage to Betty Stayton Elwell in 1986. He was honored by the City of Austin for his role in founding the El Buen Samaritano Medical Clinic. Dr. Penn served with many organizations and held numerous offices including: Chairman (1973 to 1982), Governor's Advisory Committee on Medical Assistance to the Underprivileged; Member, Advisory Board, Child Development Specialist Program, Oregon State Department of Education; Member, Advisory Committee, Oregon State Children's Services Division; Member, Medical Advisory Committee, Planned Parenthood of Seattle (1966-70) and Portland (1972-83); and, Member, Advisory Committee, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner Program, Oregon Health Sciences University. Dr. Penn is survived by his wife Betty, his children, Frances Darby of Bellingham, Washington, Sharon Puterbaugh of Tualatin, Oregon, and Rhesa Lee Penn III of Palo Alto, California, his grandchildren, John Darby of Everett, Washington, Joni Pope of Houston, Texas, and Lesa Spurgeon of Perth, Australia, and three great-grandchildren. Survivors include his brother W.R. (Bill) Penn of Austin and his sister Margaret Manroe of Austin. The family requests memorials be sent to: El Buen Samaritano Episcopal Mission, 7000 Woodhue, Austin, Texas, 78745 (lebuen.org); or, Alexander Graham Bell Organization of the Deaf, Hear from the Start Talk for a Lifetime, P.O. Box 17487, Baltimore, Maryland, 21297-1487. A service of celebration will be held on January 6, 2007, at St. David’s Episcopal Church in Austin, Texas at 3:00 p.m. Obituary and guestbook online at wcfish.com