Published: Saturday, 7/12/2014 - Updated: 58 seconds ago

BY MARK ZABORNEY BLADE STAFF WRITER

DEFIANCE Dr. Robert R. Southworth, whose desire to help others and interest in learning came together in his practice of medicine, died Tuesday in the University of Toledo Medical Center, the former Medical College of Ohio. He was 86.

He had an apparent heart attack while a visitor at the medical center, said his son Stephen.

Dr. Southworth was in his 70s when he semi retired from his primary care practice of more than 40 years at Defiance Clinic.

He was the first employee on the first day in 1962, said Chad Peter, chief executive of what is now Mercy Defiance Clinic. He was one of our rocks in our group.

We all grew old with him, said Mr. Peter, whom Dr. Southworth hired in 1976 for a clinic administrative job. He was definitely loved by his patients. He was a very solid individual and physician, which helped our group go from 12 doctors to ultimately 35 over that number of years.

In semi-retirement, he worked in state prisons. He volunteered for the Mildred Bayer Clinic for the Homeless in Toledo and for a group at the county senior center offering respite to elderly caregivers.

He felt indebted to those less fortunate, his son said, but he would shun taking credit for doing things on their behalf. Hed much rather do things anonymously.

He was born Aug. 17, 1927, to Ella and Charles Southworth, in Beverly, Mass., and grew up in Danvers, Mass., where he went to high school. He was a stateside Navy veteran of World War II. As a child, he often went with his mother on her calls as a visiting nurse and made up his mind to become a doctor.

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Defiance doctor loved by patients