Dr. John Jerome Jerry Wildgen, 85

John Jerome Jerry Wildgen, M.D., died on Sunday, May 23, 2010, in Wilsonville, Ore. He was 85. Dr. Wildgen is survived by his three sons, Mark of Bemidji, Minn., Jay of Yakima, Wash., and Kevin of Edwards, Colo.; his daughter, Stasia Ann Larsen, of Wilsonville; his brother, George Wildgen, of Little Rock, Ark.; and six grandchildren. Born in Hoisington, Kan., to Frances Norton Wildgen and Jerome Charles Wildgen, he was the second oldest of six children. After the death of his father, the family relocated to Canon City, Colo., where Jerry completed high school at Holy Cross Abbey School. He also assisted his mother in raising the large family and in operating the Canon Hotel which the family owned for many years. His undergraduate and graduate education was obtained at the University of Kansas from which he received his Doctor of Medicine in 1949. Dr. Wildgen served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, and then in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean conflict. He was discharged as captain in 1954. While working in Yellowstone National Park, Jerry met Jacqueline M. Hanson of Appleton, Minn. They married in June of 1949 and settled in Kalispell, where Dr. Wildgen then began Family Medical Associates with George H. Gould M.D. The practice remained active for the next 40 years. During that time he served as a member of the board of trustees of Kalispell General Hospital as well as president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, and was a member of the Institute of Medicine. He was instrumental in helping medical schools across the nation in instituting family practice medicine as an academic specialty. He loved camping and fishing in Glacier National Park and the Bob Marshall Wilderness. He enjoyed telling jokes and always will be remembered for his famous Moon Stories which he told to his children, their friends, grandchildren and whoever else he could get to listen! After retiring as a family physician, he offered his services as a medical missionary in Vietnam, as well as Tanzania, Jamaica, Newfoundland and St. Lucia. In 2003, Dr. Wildgen moved to Palm Desert, Calif., to enjoy a warmer climate and one of his primary passions in life, tennis. He also enjoyed other outdoor activities; mostly fly fishing, but also golf, volunteering at the Living Desert Animal Hospital, and a good walk with his dog, Lily. Dr. Wildgen spent these retirement years with his partner Sheila Bertozzi of Palm Desert. Other associations and organizations in which Dr. Wildgen assumed a leadership include the Boy Scouts of America, Rotary Club (president and Paul Harris Fellow), Sigma Chi Fraternity and Alpha Omega Alpha Honorary Medical Society. A celebration to remember Dr. J.J. Wildgen will be held in Kalispell this coming September. Any memorials or remembrance should be directed to Saint Matthew s School Kalispell; or to The American Academy of Family Physicians Foundation, 1140 Tomahawk Creek Parkway, Leawood, Kansas 66211.