Robert G Frazier MD

Rob Frazier (1923-2021), long-term resident of Wilmette and Evanston, died peacefully at home on October 13, 2021, at age 98. He was the former executive director of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) headquartered in Evanston, and later senior dean of academic affairs at Loyola University School of Medicine, in Maywood. Born and raised in Riverside, he was a graduate of the University of Chicago Lab School, College, and Medical School, and completed an internship at Yale University, New Haven, CT., followed by a residency in pediatrics at the University of Chicago Hospital, and a fellowship in neonatology at the University of Colorado. Post WWII, he then completed his deferred military service as a first lieutenant and head of the pediatric clinic in the Medical Dispensary at Frankfurt am Main, Germany. His first professional appointment was as assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of Iowa College of Medicine in Iowa City.

While at the University of Chicago Hospital Robert met Ruth Ann Johnson, a Hyde Park native and fellow university student. They were married in 1950 and followed his professional career in successive moves to Denver, Frankfurt, Iowa City, and Wilmette, where he began his career at the AAP. In that role he represented America’s pediatricians at medical conferences in this country and around the world. In the 1960s he testified before Congress to defend the value of the new Head Start program. At Loyola, Robert was able to bring together several major interests in life -- medicine, teaching, literature and poetry -- teaching Medical Ethics and Literature for Medical Students, in hopes of making doctors more understanding and well-rounded persons. He retired from Loyola at 75.

Robert was a lifelong advocate of the University of Chicago emphasis on the great books, great conversations and adult learning. In retirement in Chicago and South Haven, Mich., he created many different types of puzzles in wood, culminating in a patent for his "Tetrahedral Joint," which needed no nails or glue to hold together. He designed and built many tables using this joint. An avid runner, tennis player, skier, woodcut artist, piano player, weaver, reader of poetry and philosophy, bread-maker, and woodworker, he was truly a Renaissance man.

Robert is predeceased by his parents, five siblings, and son, Stephen. He is survived by his wife of 70 years, Ruth Ann; his children, Thomas (Patricia Dillavou) and Carolyn (J. Duncan Moore, Jr.); three grandchildren, Eleanor, Benjamin, and Roberta; and many nieces and nephews. A memorial service is planned for Spring 2022.