Alan Eric Seyfer

Alan Eric Seyfer of San Antonio, Texas passed peacefully from complications of interstitial lung disease on Oct. 7, 2020 at Brook Army Medical Center. Al was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and became enamored of the medical profession as a teen hospital orderly. He also loved football, and was named a first team all-state lineman. He was heavily recruited and chose to attend West Point.

After graduating with a degree in engineering, Al was assigned to a missile unit in Milwaukee, where he met the love of his life, Glenna Stuart, who became his wife of 52 years. They were married in 1968 and Al was posted to Okinawa, Japan. In 1969, Al entered Louisiana State University School of Medicine, where he graduated with honors. He then completed surgical fellowships at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Harvard, Sloan-Kettering, and Duke University.

In the 1980s, he was chief of plastic surgery and hand surgery at Walter Reed. In 1989, he retired as a Colonel and he and his family moved to Portland, Oregon, where he chaired the Plastic and Hand Surgical Divisions at Oregon Health Sciences University School of Medicine. He built two large surgery training programs, and his research team won multiple National Institutes of Health grants for their work on bone regenerating proteins. He and his colleagues published more than 100 articles and textbook chapters, and he authored a surgical atlas on chest wall reconstruction.

But it was the daily teaching of his residents, fellows, interns and med students that Al loved most. The medical students at OHSU honored Al with numerous teaching awards. In 2002, Al retired from OHSU and accepted Distinguished Professorships in Anatomy and Surgery at the Uniformed Services University School of Medicine in Bethesda, Maryland. While in Maryland, he served two terms as president of the Maryland State Anatomy Board, an ethics and policy review committee for human tissue use. In 2018, he joined the faculty of the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio’s Long School of Medicine, serving as a professor in its Department of Cell Systems and Anatomy and as a professor of surgery.

Al’s happiest moments were spent with his wife Glenna, with whom he traveled all over the world, and his daughters Tara Plymouth and Jessie Seyfer Chorney, who all survive him. He is also survived by his sister Maria Tebbetts, MD, and granddaughters Ruby and Sasha Chorney.

A funeral mass is being planned at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in San Antonio, followed by burial at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. Funeral services are being provided by Porter Loring Mortuaries (porterloring.com). If you wish to make a contribution in his memory, please consider the American Lung Association (lung.org).

“The heartfelt condolences received in the last 3 weeks are wonderful. People said Alan was:

• Kind-hearted and generous

• A wonderful teacher and mentor

• He smiled easily & was kind and knowledgeable & inspiring

• A role model, patient & humble, kind & nurturing

• Diplomatic & gentle

• Patient, wise, & insightful

• Had extraordinary Leadership & Professional skills

• He was compassionate & treated those well, above & below him

• Had a big smile, a joyful & kindhearted manner

We were very lucky and thank the Lord for him Always!”

Service was livestreamed and can be viewed below: