Robert "Stephen" Venable

Robert (Steve) Venable was born on December 21, 1950, in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and spent his early years living in various places before settling in Little Rock.

He attended medical school at UAMS and completed his Family Practice Residency in Tulsa. Afterwards, he developed an interest in Emergency Medicine and became board-certified in that specialty, working for the remainder of his career as an Emergency Physician.

Steve was recruited back to Little Rock to establish the first independent Emergency Medicine Residency program at UAMS, where he taught interns, medical students, and paramedics. During this same period, he founded the first urgent care clinic in the area, Clinicare. The clinic was highly successful, eventually expanding to three locations, which he later sold before relocating to Southern California to continue his work in emergency medicine.

While practicing in California, Steve also served as Assistant Medical Director for FHP, a managed care organization, where he supervised eight clinics.

Later, he was recruited as the Chief Medical Officer for Humana Health Plans, overseeing four regional medical directors. One of his key initiatives focused on improving patient satisfaction, which saw significant improvement under his leadership. While at Humana, in 1994, he authored and edited a publication on the treatment and evaluation of AIDS patients.

In the late 1990s, Steve became the founding editor of the journal Managed Care Medicine, which received a national award for best new journal publication. He also served as Chairman of the Board for the National Association of Managed Care Physicians.

Before the merger of MetLife Health Care (in Westport, CT) with Travelers, he held the position of Corporate Vice President for Medical Operations, where he supervised more than 40 medical directors and 70 nurses responsible for utilization management and quality assurance.

At a celebration dinner following a medical management course at UC Irvine, a colleague once remarked that Steve was the most intelligent person he had ever met. Perhaps an exaggeration—but there’s no doubt that Steve was a remarkable overachiever.

On a personal level, Steve was generous with his money, time, and knowledge. He had a deep love for teaching and often lost track of time while doing so—he was notoriously late to everything. Though generally reserved and private, he was unfailingly loyal to his close friends. His dry sense of humor was one of his most endearing qualities and was, in fact, what first attracted me to him. After his passing, friends recalled his kind heart.

He was proud of Arkansas and took every opportunity to enlighten others about its history and culture, often surprising people with his breadth of knowledge. After many years away, we moved to Bentonville to retire and enjoy the trails, new restaurants, and Crystal Bridges Museum. Sadly, soon after our move, Steve was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He endured years of chemotherapy before finally succumbing to the disease.

He will be deeply missed by all who knew and loved him.

He is survived by his wife, Dyan Ricketts Venable.