Deseret Morning News, 06/04/07

Robert H, Burgoyne, M.D., died Saturday, June 2, 2007, of congestive heart failure and related complications. He died at home where he wanted to be. Robert Hyrum Burgoyne was born to Sidney Eynon Burgoyne and Beatrice Holmes Burgoyne on November 22, 1920, at home in Montpelier, Bear Lake County, Idaho. Robert grew up in Montpelier schools, always excelling in class work and was graduated as valedictorian from Montpelier High School. He played the trumpet in competitions and was editor of the "Grizzly" for one year. He attended Utah State University, working all four years as a physics lab instructor for Leon B. Linford, Ph.D., and taught classes when his professors were called to war. He was graduated in 1942 with straight "As', except for two "Bs', and was valedictorian of his University LDS Institute class. Robert married Beulah Mae Daines Burgoyne in 1943. Together, they had four brilliant children, all successful in their respective fields. The couple was divorced in 1977. After college, Robert followed his major professor to work at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1942 - 1945) and was assigned to the Wave Propagation Group for fundamental radar. He measured and later predicted the direction and range of radar and where it could best be used and apprehended as the Germans had it also. He and a colleague invented an ingenious device to measure and record the index of refraction of the air which affected the radar beam in direction and range. To accomplish this, he flew in a 1935 Curtis Wright over the Atlantic Ocean and climbed the Marblehead, Massachusetts, lighthouse every hour, 24/7 for a week. When the war ended, he resigned to continue his studies and was told by the Wave Propagation Group that they would miss his "inventive genius." In 1995, he returned to Marblehead and bought a painting of the lighthouse. Robert taught physics and math for one year at Montpelier High School, during which time he applied to medical schools. He had a choice of Ivy League schools, but chose Cornell in New York because he thought he had a job there. His brother David followed him to Cornell a year later. Robert was graduated in 1950 in the top quarter of his class. Robert practiced general medicine in Malad and then Montpelier, Idaho, for eight years. He delivered 655 babies over an eight-year period. In 1959, after consulting with then apostle Spencer W. Kimball, Robert decided to enter a psychiatric residency at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, completing his final year at Compton, a suburb of Los Angeles. Robert returned to Salt Lake City, practicing general psychiatry for two years (1962 - 1964) and then was hired by the LDS Church to start an outpatient clinic at LDS Hospital. Thus began an illustrious pioneer career. Robert founded the outpatient clinic at LDS and Primary Children's Hospital, developed an adolescent program and a pain clinic, which lasted for seventeen years. In the early 1970s, he was able to change psychiatry at LDS Hospital from a division of medicine to its own department, which he chaired and directed. He headed the department for twenty-seven and a half years and ended his career as a crisis psychiatrist at Wasatch Canyons. Retiring at eighty-four, he is often described by colleagues as a "pillar" and "legend." Robert offered help to thousands of people, lifting the lonely and down trodden, the mentally ill and unstable to positions of stability. For his outstanding contributions, he is beloved by many, many people. Ultimately, he practiced medicine for fifty-four and a half years. Robert had a cultural life as well. In 1977, he married Marianne Harding. At this time, he became more involved in the arts, studied Shakespeare, traveled, and skied. Together, they built their home on Damon Way, where he lived the rest of his days and where he died peacefully, Marianne beside him, June 2, 2007. Robert was a High Priest in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. His favorite calling was Gospel Doctrine teacher in the Ensign 5th Ward. Of Mormon pioneer heritage, he had a strong belief of his Savior and Church doctrine. Robert is survived by his wife Marianne; his four children: Diane Pond Burgoyne (Steve), residing in Paris, France; Robert H. Burgoyne, II, (Adrienne) of St. Louis, Missouri; John Daines Burgoyne, MD, (Nancy) of Seattle, Washington; and Elizabeth Burgoyne Merrell (Brett) of Sewickley, Pennsylvania; twenty-two grandchildren, and forty-one great grandchildren. The family would like to thank all who attended to Robert's health in his declining years, especially the outstanding physicians at LDS Outpatient Clinic, Intermountain Home Health Care, and Hospice. Funeral Services will be held Thursday, June 7, 2007, at 11:00 a.m., at the Big Cottonwood Stake Center, 1750 East Spring Lane, Salt Lake City, UT 84117.