Harold Lamberton Obituary

Walla Walla resident, Dr. Harold W. Lamberton, 89, died April 22, 2008, at the Washington Odd Fellows Home, 534 Boyer Avenue, Walla Walla, WA. The Memorial Service will be at 4:00 p.m., Sunday, June 22, 2008, in the Brewster High School Gymnasium. Following the memorial service, there will be a community potluck in the High School Commons. Memorial contributions may be made to the Okanogan Douglas County Hospital in Brewster through Mountain View-Colonial DeWitt, 1551 Dalles Military Road, Walla Walla, WA 99362. Dr. Lamberton was born August 9, 1918, in Langford, SD, to Henry Horton and Epkaya Suttmann Lamberton. He graduated as class President from Brewster High School in 1937. He graduated from Walla Walla College in 1941, and received his medical degree from the College of Medical Evangelists, now known as Loma Linda University, in 1943. On October 14, 1943, he and Bernice Wall married in Redlands, CA. The family moved to this area in 1993, from Brewster. During his retirement in Walla Walla, Dr. Lamberton was a professional grandfather. While he and his wife lived in their home on Old Milton Highway, nine of his grandchildren attended and graduated from Garrison Middle School, Walla Walla Valley Academy, Walla Walla High School, Walla Walla College, or Whitman College. His grandchildren filled his home and Harold busied himself telling stories, making popcorn and tinkering with his yard irrigation system. He was an expert teacher and spent hours explaining physiology, the anatomy of all kinds of animals and politics, to his children and grandchildren. He also loved to tell stores of home-births, high-mountain rescues and his life as one of 14 children. He had an endless supply of jokes and other physicians said he would regale them with tales to break the tension of surgeries. Dr. Lamberton practiced medicine for over 40 years in Brewster. He and his wife and children lived on the Sunny L Ranch, within site of his childhood home, and they raised cattle, horses, alfalfa and fruit. He was a true General Practitioner, who delivered nearly 2,000 babies, did nearly daily orthopedic and other surgeries and who, for many years, past the time when other physicians stopped, made house calls to ailing patients. He often worked a 40 hour week by Tuesday. His family's station wagon was the town ambulance and his family farm became a kind of waiting room for patients who had appointments postponed because of accidents and other emergencies. He was instrumental in establishing a rural physicians program in the State of Washington, wherein specialists traveled to small hospitals in order to give high-level care. He was an advisor of rural medicine to the University of Washington Medical School and trained externs from many medical schools, who were interested in becoming country doctors. He and his wife Bernice had lived in Alaska before their move to Brewster in 1949, and Harold trained in orthopedics at the Army Hospital in Palmer, AK. He was in the U.S. Army through medical school and traveled to Japan on a troop ship shortly after the end of WWII. Harold and Bernice had six children of their own and raised three nephews as well, after their parents were killed in a private plane. Harold and Bernice also gave college tuition and many kinds of gifts to more people than their children will ever account for. His great knowledge, wit and kindness are his heritage. He often quoted Tennyson, Robert Service and the Bible. His favorite text, Philippians 4:8, was decaled on the side of his little rowboat. His memberships included the American Medical Association, American Academy of Family Practice, National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Medical Diving Branch, Washington Farmer-Stockman Association and Toastmasters International. He is survived by his wife of Walla Walla; three daughters, Lynda Lamberton Osborne of Yakima, WA, Bunny Baker of College Place and Katie Lamberton Crane of Spokane, WA; three sons, Ronald Warren Lamberton of Cornelius, NC, Henry Harold Lamberton of Loma Linda, CA and Daniel Alan Lamberton of Walla Walla; three guardian nephews, Lloyd Warren Wall of Kennewick, WA, Roy Joseph Wall and Reginald Henry Wall, both of Port Alberni, British Columbia; three sisters, Iva Mae Huey of Robstown, TX, Chloette Kruger of College Place and Kay Hanson of Brewster; two brothers, Clark Lamberton of Chaing Mai, Thailand and Lindy Lamberton of McMinnville, OR; 17 grandchildren; 17 great-grandchildren; and 52 nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents and eight brothers and sisters.