Dr Oliver W. Suehs, a distinguished and highly regarded Texas otolaryngologist, died at home at age 89 on January 2, 2001, after an extended illness.

Dr Suehs was born November 17, 1911, in Carmine, Texas to Paul E. and Laura J. (Marburger) Suehs and moved to Austin in 1914. He attended the Austin public schools and graduated from Austin High in 1928, the University of Texas at Austin in 1932, and the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, in 1936. He served a 2-year rotating internship at the Graduate Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a 3-year residency in bronchoesophagology and otolaryngology at Jefferson Medical College Hospital in Philadelphia.

He married Helen Margaret Budd on June 28, She predeceased him in 1992, after 51 years of marriage. He returned to Austin in 1941 to enter private practice with his father, the late Dr P. E. Suehs.

During World War II, he served in Europe as chief of the otolaryngology department with the 127th General Hospital Unit, which was staffed by faculty and students of the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston.

After the war, Dr Suehs was in private practice in Austin until his retirement in December 1980. He served as chief of staff of St David's Hospital, was an honorary member of the Travis County Medical Society (president 1947) and of the Texas Medical Association (chairman of the Otolaryngology section, 1953), was an Emeritus Fellow of the American Laryngological Association and of the Texas Association of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (co-founder, 1945), and was a Fellow of the American Triological Society (1st Prize Thesis, 1952).

He was a member of the Texas Society of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology (president, 1968), the American Broncho-Esophagological Association (vice president, 1968), the American Council on Otolaryngology (Texas State chairman, 1973-1975), the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology, the Pan-American Association of Otolaryngology and Broncho-Esophagology, the International Broncho-Esophagology Society, and the Doctors Journal Club (president, 1958). He contributed numerous articles to medical journals.

He was a dedicated physician, husband, father, and friend, but still found time to enjoy hunting and fishing trips, as well as playing golf and cards at the Austin Country Club. He was awarded the ACC Golf Sportsmanship award in 1959. He was a regular attendee of the Dome Lake Club's monthly reunions.

He was a member of the Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd, the Austin Country Club, the Coronet Club, and the Headliner's Club, and a founding member of the Knights of the Symphony.

He is survived by his sister, Ruth Suehs Phillips of Dallas; cousins, Lillian Suehs Pratho, Lloyd Schumann, Don Schumann, and Clinton Korth of Giddings; daugher, Peggy Ryder, and her husband Steve of Austin; son, Oliver William Suehs, Jr, and his wife Ann of Castroville; grandchildren, Bill Bishop and his wife Heather of Austin, Laura Garcia and her husband Greg of Longview, Mary Jean Suehs of Houston, Charles Ryder and his wife Morgan of Dallas, Stephanie Morris and her husband Daniel of Austin; great-granddaughter, Laurel Morris; and many nieces and nephews.

Dr. Suehs was known for his gracious professional manner, as exemplified by the welcome assistance he provided to new young otolaryngologists coming to Austin. Some of the equipment he donated to other physicians is still in use today.

Upon his retirement from practice, Dr Suehs donated his extensive medical library of books, journals, and bound proceedings to the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Texas Medical Branch. He subsequently established the Paul E. and Laura J. Suehs Professorship in Pediatric Otolaryngology as a permanent endowment honoring their memory.

Dr Suehs will be remembered by all who knew him as a friendly, outgoing, intelligent, generous, and warm human being. He was a true gentleman and will be missed by those of us who were privileged to know him.

B.J.B.
R.W.D.