Dr. Raymond Edward Rapp Jr.

Dr. Raymond Rapp, Jr., 93, died peacefully at his home in Weyers Cave, on February 5, 2018. He was born December 8, 1924, in Belleville, IL, to Raymond E. Rapp, Sr. and Florence Aull Rapp. He grew up in Washington, D.C., and attended the University of Maryland, and was inducted in March 1943, into the (then) Army Air Corps, where he was commissioned as an Aerial Navigator, and served for 31 months. Thereafter, he attended the George Washington University, in Washington, where he received a B.S. degree in Zoology in 1948, and a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1952. He continued training at the Guthrie Clinic at Sayre, PA, and the Foss Clinic at Danville, PA, in preparation for entering General Practice. In 1954 he married Jeanne Audrey Cleary, of Falls Church, VA. They entered General Practice in Montrose, PA, and then Unadilla, NY, and after 11 years moved to Syracuse, NY, where Dr. Rapp completed a 2-year anesthesiology residency. The family moved to a farm near Weyers Cave, VA, in 1968, and Dr. Rapp practiced anesthesiology at the Rockingham Memorial Hospital for 28 years, until his retirement in 1995. Dr. Rapp travelled three times to Manizales, Colombia, and once to Nablus, on the Israeli-occupied West Bank, with the international surgical team, Operation Smile, to give anesthetics to children for plastic-surgical and orthopedic procedures. In 1991 he arranged a solo trip to spend a month in Malawi, Central Africa, supplying anesthetic equipment for, and teaching an African anesthetist modern anesthetic techniques, in a small Presbyterian mission hospital at Mulanje. This greatly enhanced the comfort and safety of surgical patients, and the confidence and effectiveness of the O.R. staff, by virtue of their newly-acquired control over intra-operative events. He was a member of Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Harrisonburg, where at various times he was a vestryman, a choir member, a food pantry worker, and puller of weeds in the church yard. He was predeceased by his parents, a sister Eleanor, and a brother Herbert. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Jeanne, with whom he shared, among other things, a fondness for ballroom dancing. His other survivors are a son, Jonathan, and wife Mojdeh, of Brooklyn, NY; a daughter, Rebecca, of Harrisonburg; a son, Peter, of Weyers Cave; a son Thomas and his wife Diana, and their three children, David, Rachel, and Andrew of Keswick; a son David and his wife Nancy, and their sons Benjamin and Corban, of Charlottesville; a son James, of Weyers Cave; a sister, Sarah Anne, of Gaithersburg, MD; and a brother David, of Staunton. The body was cremated. A memorial service will be held on February 17th at 2:00 pm at Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Harrisonburg. Memorial donations may be made to the Emanuel Episcopal Church food pantry, or to the Salvation Army. Lindsey Funeral Home in Weyers Cave is handling arrangements and condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.lindseyweyerscave.com.