Robert G. Stanek

COLONEL, U.S. ARMY RET.

Robert Stanek, 86 of San Antonio passed away on 15 August 2010. He was born in the family home in Fairfax, South Dakota on 23 April 1924. He was the second of three sons, Joe, Bob and Herb, born to Joseph and Gladys Weeks Stanek. Bob was an excellent high school student. His favorite sport was basketball and he was a four-year team member. He served as class president in his sophomore, junior and senior years. Bob graduated from Fairfax High School in May of 1942. Bob enlisted in the U.S. Army in November 1942. Training in radio maintenance, repair and operation he was sent to the South Pacific where he served in New Caledonia, Bougainville, Guadalcanal and Luzon. His overseas service was completed with a six month tour with the occupation forces in Japan. Following his discharge from military service in 1946, Bob worked briefly for Standard Oil of California and then enrolled in undergraduate studies at the University of California at Berkeley with the financial help of the "G.I. Bill." He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in physiology in 1951. With generous support from the state of South Dakota as a World War II veteran, he entered medical school at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in 1953. Bob then completed his medical school studies at the University of California in San Francisco. Throughout his last two years of medical school, Bob worked nights in a local San Francisco hospital, where he earned room and board and a modest stipend. With his doctor of medicine degree in hand, Bob started an intense five-year training program in surgery under the auspices of the U.S. Army Medicine Department. Upon completion of surgery training, he served as staff surgeon in Wurzburg, Germany and at Brooke Army Medical Center. In 1968, Dr Stanek was deployed to Vietnam where he commanded the 22nd Surgical Hospital and then the 24th Evacuation Hospital. He then served as the Chief of the Department of Surgery at Madigan Army Medical Center before being assigned to the U.S. Army Europe, first as the Surgery Consultant and later as the Chief of Professional Services. COL Stanek's final military assignment was as Chief of the Consultant's Division of the Surgeon General of the Army at the Pentagon. Dr Stanek was a board certified general surgeon, a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a past member of their Board of Governors. His military decorations include the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and the Meritorious Service Medal. In 1952, Ellinor Engelstad emigrated from Oslo, Norway and was employed at the Norwegian Consulate in San Francisco. Ellinor and Bob met in 1953 and were married in 1955. Ellinor passed away on 1 June 2010 and is interred at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery. Col. Stanek is survived by two sons, Dr. Steven Stanek of San Antonio, Texas and Dr. Scott Stanek of Columbia, Maryland. He is also survived by a brother, Herb Stanek, of San Jose, California. Visitation will be on Thursday, August 19, 2010 from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. at Porter Loring.

GRAVESIDE SERVICE

FRIDAY

AUGUST 20, 2010

10:00 A.M.

FORT SAM HOUSTON NATIONAL CEMETERY