Dr. Robert St. Clair

Passed away at his daughter’s home in Boise, ID on February 24, 2017. He was surrounded by his family and love. Bob was a multi-talented man with a variety of interests and many friends. As a child in Idaho Falls, ID, Bob had a keen fascination and compassion for animals of all sorts. He spent most of his time outdoors and often brought home creatures he found, including snakes, lizards, injured birds, ferrets, and even a pair of bobcats. In college, he raised a hawk in the attic of his fraternity house. He sustained his love for animals in later years as a rancher, raising cattle and sheep. Bob attended the University of Idaho, and was an active member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity and participated in ROTC while getting his degree in Zoology.

After he graduated in 1966, Bob was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force and was quickly on his way to fulfilling his childhood dream of becoming a pilot. He attended Air Force pilot training in Texas, and has enjoyed the life-long friendships he made from that experience. He is a veteran of three major military campaigns: Vietnam; Desert Storm; and Operation Enduring Freedom. He trained and flew in the F4C, and later volunteered for tour in Vietnam as a forward air controller in the O-1 Bird Dog. He remained in active duty until 1977, with stations in England, Alaska, Thailand, and Florida. In 1977, he left active duty, and joined the Idaho Air National Guard as a Photo Processing Officer, and RF4C aircraft commander. It was during this time in Boise, ID that he met his wife Jane Silver, married and had a daughter, Ann Margaret.

In 1982, Bob took his new family on his next adventure: medical school in the Caribbean. In 1986, Bob and family returned to the States for residency and he joined the Pennsylvania Air National Guard serving in the medical corps. In 1989, Bob made the move across country with his family to start his Medical Practice in Davenport, WA. At that point he transferred to the Washington Air National Guard. At Fairchild, he became the Chief of Aerospace Medicine. In 1998, he was selected as the Washington State Air Surgeon, where he served until his retirement as a Colonel in 2012.

During his military career Col. St. Clair was highly decorated. He obtained over 5,100 flight hours, with over 1,000 hours of combat time. He has participated in over 460 combat sorties. Among other honors, he was awarded the Air Medal with 12 oak leaf clusters. In his private life, he continued practicing his love of flying, and was an accomplished back-country pilot, logging hundreds of hours in his Cessna 180.

In his many years of practice in Davenport, he has helped community members through thousands of medical issues. He has worked over 55,000 hours in the emergency room. He has delivered babies and cared for many individuals from birth through adulthood. He would meet farmers in their fields and the elderly in their homes. It was during this time in Davenport that his son Robert Taylor was born, with Bob assisting in the delivery room. He was the epitome of the friendly small town doctor, being voted by Spokesman Review readers as the region’s “Least Pretentious Doctor.” In 2015, he was awarded the John Anderson Memorial Award for Outstanding Rural Health Practitioner by the Washington Rural Health Association.

Bob was a tall, slender man with a quick smile, he was usually found in blue jeans and a flannel shirt. Meeting him was instant joy. He was engaging and friendly on all levels. If he found something interesting, he would get excited about it. He would discuss anything, including politics, freely. He kept-close and valued friendships and family. Bob traveled extensively both with the military and in his civilian life. He spent significant time in Europe and Southeast Asia and often took his family on these adventures. He also enjoyed time spent at the family cabin in eastern Idaho and flying his Cessna 180 over Yellowstone Park. Bob was an expert card player, and enjoyed puzzles and cribbage with family. He particularly enjoyed these games with a bowl of huckleberry ice cream, a good German beer, or a small bowl of his signature clam dip.

Outside is where he loved to be: fly-fishing, hunting, or just feeding the cows, Bob always found a reason to get outside. Bob strongly believed that he had a responsibility to improve everything he touched and exercised that responsibility with generosity. Over the years, he has built miles of fencing, created ponds and habitat for area wildlife, taken in and healed injured animals, and planted hundreds of trees. Bob believed that simply planting a tree would improve the value and quality of the land, not just for him, but for future generations.

Dr. Robert St. Clair was preceded in death by his parents Robert and Helen St. Clair. He is survived by his wife Jane St. Clair, children Ann Margaret St. Clair, and Robert St. Clair, his brother Richard St. Clair and sister Ann Taylor, and numerous cousins whom he loved and maintained close relationships with since childhood.

A Celebration of Life Memorial service will be held at the Davenport Middle School Gym on Saturday, March 18, 2017, at 11am. Please sign the online guestbook at www.stratefuneralhome.com. Memorial arrangements are under the direction of Strate Funeral Home in Davenport. The family asks that, in lieu of flowers, you make a donation to the Lincoln Hospital Foundation.

Finally, the family asks that in honor of Bob you and your family plant a tree. He would be happy to know that anyone would honor him in that way to make our community better for generations to come.