Karl E. Humiston

On the morning of August 14, 2024, Karl E. Humiston (94) of Salem came peacefully to the end of a rich and fulfilling life, surrounded in his home by loving family. He was born June 14, 1930, in Oak Park, a suburb of Chicago, to Homer Wheeler and Katharine Zener Humiston.

Through trips from Chicago to New Mexico and Upper Michigan, his parents imparted to him and his two younger sisters a great love of camping and of boating, two activities the family pursued avidly when they moved to Seattle in 1939, before settling in Tacoma in 1940. Growing up in Tacoma he was active as a Sea Scout, and during his summers he worked as a tugboat mate and as a summer camp counselor on Puget Sound, never far from the water or the rails. When he graduated from Stadium High School in 1947, he took an extended railroad journey throughout the nation, the entire trip at that time still drawn exclusively by steam power.

As well as devotion to the outdoors, Karl’s parents encouraged in him a great love of study and learning. He received a bachelor’s degree in Biological Science from Stanford in 1951, and graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1955. As a doctor, he continued the legacy of his father and his grandfather, as well as of his paternal grandmother before him. He specialized in psychiatry, and was drawn throughout the 1960's to prominent innovators, receiving training in Family Therapy under Virginia Satir, Gestalt Therapy under Dr. Frederick S. (Fritz) Perls, and Structural Integration under Dr. Ida Rolf. As one of the last practitioners personally trained by Dr. Rolf herself, he remained active in the Rolf Institute until his retirement from the practice in 2021.

In 1959 he married Lois Perschbacher, a dietician who, like himself, was born in the Midwest and was making a future in Seattle. They spent twelve years together and had five children, all sons, who to this day have fond memories of growing up near the woods, the salt water, the train tracks, and the blackberry bushes of Tacoma’s Commencement Bay. In 1972 he married Bonnie (Buerge) Rich of Salem, an accomplished nurse, with whom he enjoyed the next 52 years and raised another two daughters, two sons, and later, two grandchildren, in Tacoma, Idaho, Oklahoma, Arkansas, New York, and then Albany, Oregon. From 1959 to 1961, Karl served active duty in the U.S. Naval Reserve in Bremerton, Washington, and in 1961 and ‘62 he served a psychiatric residency in Gourock, Scotland.

Throughout his life, he was devoted to finding integrated means of healing both mind and body, and he became a champion of holistic medicine. Toward this end he established Amaru House in Idaho and Arkansas, and later Humiston Holistic Health in New York City. He retired from medical practice in 1989, but continued to serve as a healthcare lobbyist with the Oregon legislature in the 1990's, where he helped draft state law protecting the practice of drug-free alternative medicine.

During these years he and Bonnie also ran the Brier Rose Inn, a bed-and-breakfast in Albany. In his later years he lived close to children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren in San Diego, where his son John continued the family legacy of innovative medicine.

After another three years in Brooklyn, New York, Karl and Bonnie returned to Salem in 2021. Karl’s children and grandchildren cherish joyful memories of boat trips on Puget Sound and on the Columbia River. He was fond of choral music, and served as president of the Glee Club in college. He also enjoyed singing spirited hymns in church, and would often tell of how great singers had influenced his life. He was a devoted member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and served for many years as a temple worker in the San Diego temple, and later in the Manhattan New York temple as well.

Karl is preceded in death by his sisters Ruth Marshall of Leyba, New Mexico, and Susan Chapp of Grants Pass, his son Mark Humiston, and his grandson Eric French. He is survived by his loving wife Bonnie, daughters Karen Grisinger and Jenny Lynn French, son Scott Rich, and sons Michael, John, Matthew, Thomas, and Frederick Humiston, 25 grandchildren, and 36 great grandchildren. He will be fondly missed by his family and his many friends. Interment at Willamette Memorial Park Cemetery in Albany, Oregon.

Services are at Willamette Memorial Park Cemetery located in Albany, OR at 2:00PM with a meal to follow at the Mennonite Village Pavillion.