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Nathan A. Geurkink May 29, 2010 |
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“Before you know what kindness really is, you must lose things”…..N. Nye Nathan A. Geurkink, age 76, died at Mt. Ascutney Hospital in Windsor, VT, privately and hopeful, on Saturday morning, May 29, 2010. He had lived with Kidney Cancer and its perils for six and a half years. “I was was born on a farm in Oklahoma, and ……” was the lead into the hundreds of colorful stories he’d love to tell. Farm life in the Ardmore, OK, framed the kind, strong man he grew to be. His loving parents were Al and Olive Mae Geurkink. Achieving a BS at Oklahoma State University in 1955, he wrestled his way through college, “pinning” some of the biggest competition. Next he traded “the mat” for medicine and graduated from University of Oklahoma School of Medicine in 1959. He was invited into The National Medical Honor Society, Alpha Omega Alpha, while still in Medical School. The United States Public Health Service Division of Indian Health followed. He spent two years at the Taos Pueblo in New Mexico, 1960-1962. This experience enhanced his depth of human suffering outside of the traditional medical confines of a Hospital, and exposed him to the rich culture of the Native American Life. He spent his years as a Resident in Otolaryngology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, 1962-1966. Head and Neck Cancer surgery was added to his Specialty as well. He rubbed elbows with some of the great pioneers in medicine, when seeing just the letter “M” signed on a patient’s medical record meant-Dr. Mayo. He was on the staff at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio 4 years before moving to Hanover, NH in 1970, to practice his Specialty at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. During his 35 years, various staff/faculty appointments were made including a long tenure as Chairman of the Department of Otolaryngology. He loved medicine and the patient’s he served and was still working full time and taking “on call” responsibilities until the age of 70. It was then he was felled with cancer. He had many interests outside of medicine which he pursued with a passion, such as woodworking, wood carving, fly fishing and fly tying, birding, beekeeping, just to name a few. He is survived by his wife of 20 years, Kate; his daughters Katrina Geurkink of Tacoma, WA and Lise Neer and her husband Joe of Denver, CO; his son Jonathan Geurkink and wife Kaarina Merikaarto and their children Xander and Sopia of Seattle, WA; a brother Jack and wife Ann Geurkink, Duncan, OK and sister Shirley Hann, Ardmore, OK and many other extended family members. A memorial service will be held at the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH on July 17 at 5:30 PM. A further celebration of his life will be held at the DOC House on Occom Pond, Hanover, NH, following the church service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made, payable to: Renal Cancer Research Fund at Norris Cotton Cancer Center, mailed to Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center Development Office, Attention: M. Clark, 1 Medical Center Drive, Lebanon, NH 03756 or to VNA Hospice, P.O. Box 976, White River Jct., VT 05001. Arrangements are under the direction of the Rand-Wilson Funeral Home of Hanover, NH. “…..only kindness that raises its head from the crowd of the world to say It is I you have been looking for, and then goes with you everywhere like a shadow or a friend.” N. Nye
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