Obituary George W. Goldthorpe

    Dr. George Weimer Goldtorpe died on November 5, 2008 at his home near Lake Tahoe, California after a four-year fight with cancer.  He was born in Chicago and went to Charleston High School.  He majored in History at Dartmouth and after graduation attended University of Virginia Medical School, interning at University of California San Francisco.  He then served five years in the U.S.Navy as a flight surgeon, spending two of those years on Midway Island as director of a 24-bed hospital.

    After his internship he married Cecilia Steele and, upon George's completing his naval duty, they settled down in Half Moon Bay, California where he practiced family medicine for the next 38 years.  During that time  they raised three daughters, Amy, Penny and Wendy.

     Because of the lack of hospital or emergency services in a relatively isolated community on the Pacific coast, George and Cecilia built and administered a hospital for both acute and long-term medical and surgical care.  As he wrote in his 50th yearbook bio, 'we lost money but made many friends'.  The Goldthorpes sold the hospital to The Daughters of Charity in 1980.

     While in Half Moon Bay George was active in the community, serving on the school board for six years, president of the Chamber of Commerce, organized the local Rotary Club and still found time to attend the San Francisco Opera season and travel to many parts of the world.

    After retirement in 1998 the Goldthorpes moved to the Northstar sk resort near Lake Tahoe.  He spent 8 to 10 days a month on a 32-foot Catalina sailboat in San Francisco bay.  George is survived by his wife Cecilia, their three daughters and two grandchildren.