Dr. Charles H. Gillespie

Pioneer Temple physician Charles H. Gillespie, M.D., died on Saturday October 4, 2008, at the Meridian Health Center. He was 94 years old. Dr. Gillespie established the Department of Anesthesiology at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in 1947 and served as its Chairman for twenty-six years. During his tenure, he developed the first anesthesia residency program in Texas and mentored more than one hundred residents. An innovator in pain control techniques in the 1960s and 1970s, Dr. Gillespie established Scott & White's Pain Control Clinic, one of the first of its kind in the state. After retiring from Scott & White in 1981, he and his late wife Estelle endowed the Gillespie Family Lectureship in Anesthesiology and Pain Control. This year marked the Lectureship's twenty-fourth anniversary. Dr. Gillespie earned his medical degree from The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston in 1940. Enlisting as a Captain in the United States Army Medical Corps at the outbreak of World War II, Dr. Gillespie served as an anesthesiologist and was instrumental in developing the inaugural Mobile Army Surgical Hospital, or "MASH" unit. He was a member of a rapid-response neurosurgical team that supported the United States military forces on the beaches of Normandy during the "D-Day" invasion of France. After the war, Dr. Gillespie completed a residency in anesthesia at Hartford Hospital, Connecticut, and a fellowship at Yale University. In 1969, Dr. Gillespie was presented with the Distinguished Alumnus Award by his undergraduate alma mater Southwestern University. In 1979, Dr. and Mrs. Gillespie led a "People to People" goodwill delegation of physicians to the former Soviet Union. The following year they led a similar delegation to China in what was one of the first exchanges of scientific information between the United States and that country. Dr. Gillespie was a past president of the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists, and a founding member and president of the Texas Medical Association's 50-Year Club. In 1986 he received the TSA Founders Award, which has been bestowed on only ten individuals in Texas. Despite his many honors and achievements, however, Charlie may be best known in his hometown of Bartlett as a Depression-era teenage boy who milked cows every day to run his small dairy farm, and as the only student in his high school graduating class photograph wearing shoes. Dr. Gillespie was preceded in death in March 2001 by his wife of 61 years, Estelle Seybold Gillespie. Throughout his adult life he was an active member of the First United Methodist Church of Temple, where he served on various boards and committees and sang bass-baritone in the choir. Dr. Gillespie is survived by five children and five grandchildren: Anne G. Lueck, Ph.D., married to W. Allan Lueck, and their daughter Allison C. Lueck, of Temple; Claire G. Olson, married to Daniel C. Olson, and their son Alexander Gillespie Olson, of Richmond, Virginia; Jean S. Gillespie, of Temple; Alan C. Farrow-Gillespie, M.D., married to Liza Farrow-Gillespie, Esq., of Dallas; and Ray C. Richie-Gillespie, D.D.S., married to Mayme Richie-Gillespie, M.D., and their children Lauren Estelle Gillespie, Catrina Marie Gillespie, and Grant Richie Gillespie, of Fort Worth. Dr. Gillespie is also survived by his brother Harold L. Gillespie, who resides in Corpus Christi with his wife Joan. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 a.m. Friday October 10th at First United Methodist Church, 102 N. 2nd Street, Temple. Visitation will be from 6:00-8:00 p.m. Thursday October 9th at Scanio-Harper Funeral Home, 3110 Airport Road, Temple. Honorary pallbearers are William R. Engvall, M.D., Robert P. Wilcox, Bert A. DeBord, M.D., Santiago A. (Jim) Sanchez, M.D., Dennis J. Lynch, M.D., Jack S. Weinblatt, M.D., Jesse D. Ibarra, M.D., Tim M. Bittenbinder, M.D., Gary H. Morton, M.D., Robert J. Carabasi, M.D., John Barnes, and E. Warner Ahlgren, M.D. Memorials may be made to the Gillespie Family Lectureship, Scott & White Foundation, 2401 S. 31st St., Temple, TX 76508; or to the First United Methodist Church of Temple, Texas; or to the Central Texas Children's Center, 2000 Marlandwood Rd., Temple, TX 76502.