Renate Justin

She was born in Germany in 1926. During her childhood, the Nazis rose to power. At age nine, she was sent on a train by herself to Holland to a Quaker boarding school with only her beloved doll, Gisela, accompanying her. Later, she, her two sisters, and parents escaped again, with the help of the Quakers, to America. She lost most of the rest of her family in concentration camps.

The urge to help others—“to heal the world”—was one that came early to her. In an era when Jews, not to speak of women, were not accepted at most medical schools in the United States, she attended The Women’s Medical College of Pennsylvania. After her residency, she joined a physician who worked for a lumber company on an American Indian reservation in McNary, Arizona. One of her first acts was to desegregate the waiting room, by the simple expediency of removing the planter wall dividing the room, and its patients, down the middle.

Renate ran her own solo family medical practice in Terre Haute, Indiana from about 1959 through 1987. She was the only woman physician in town and patients flocked to her, bringing their children and eventually persuading their husbands to be her patients, too. She was a moving force behind the establishment of a Planned Parenthood clinic open to all races in Terre Haute.

She wrote, taught medicine, studied philosophy and ethics, and raised her three children and eventually grandchildren, was a warm and loving friend to many. She worked with street children in Central America and has long been a CASA advocate for abused and neglected children in the Colorado foster care system. Generations of children have learned empathy, compassion, and the importance of direct action from her.

In 1987, Renate moved to Fort Collins, CO, living in the Grey Rock co-housing community for many years with great joy and pleasure. She practiced family medicine with her forever grateful daughter/colleague, until 1995, when they both began working for Kaiser Permanente in Denver.

To her many beloved friends: Please do not feel left out if she didn’t confide in you about her illnesses and very rapid decline in health (was it only April this year that she was hiking?). Renate’s concern has always directed been at the well being and needs of others. Because of losing so many people so early in life, and more recently her granddaughter Johanna, in 2009, goodbyes have been especially painful for her. Know that, with deep love, she holds you still in her warm, accepting regard—something so rare and special in this difficult world.

In her profoundly minimalist way, she has refused any memorial service and is donating her body to the University of Colorado Medical School. In lieu of flowers, should you be moved, please feel free to donate to Doctors’ without Borders, CASA or Shining Hope (SHOFCO) for Communities to the Johanna Justin Jinich Community Clinic in Kibera, Kenya. Or simply act in her name on one of the many issues so dear to her.

With affection and thanks,

Renate’s family