It would be hard to imagine a more distinguished physician and devoted Stanford supporter than Dwight Wilbur. Born in 1903 in Harrow-on-the-Hill, England, he was the son of Iowan Ray Lyman Wilbur, who would later be Stanford's third president, 1916-1941. He practiced medicine for more than 50 years, served as president of the American Medical Association and was a force in the national debate during the creation of Medicare and Medicaid. Wilbur died March 9 of heart failure at his San Francisco home.
Wilbur grew up in a house on land where Tresidder Union now stands. He went to Stanford, where he did his undergraduate work in zoology before starting his medical training on the Farm. He received his medical degree in 1926 from the University of Pennsylvania, completed his training and residency at the Mayo Clinic and stayed on to teach for several years. "The Mayos were the two greatest doctors that ever lived," Wilbur said in 1969. "My learning experience as first assistant to Dr. Charlie Mayo was like being a cow in a field of clover."
Returning to San Francisco in 1937, Wilbur entered private practice and also became an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Stanford. During World War II, he served as chief of medicine at the U.S. Naval Hospital in Oakland.
A specialist in gastroenterology, Wilbur wrote more than 200 medical articles and edited the Journal of the California Medical Association for more than 20 years. He served as president of the American Gastroenterological Association from 1954-55 and president of the American College of Physicians in 1959. In 1968, Wilbur was elected president of the American Medical Association, the same post his father held 45 years earlier. During his tenure, Wilbur spearheaded the AMA's efforts to stop what he saw as the socialization of medicine. Although he received a number of awards and recognition by his peers, Wilbur's son Gregory says, "His first love was really private patients and being a diagnostician."
Wilbur is survived by Ruth Jordon Wilbur, '27, his wife of 68 years; two sons, Jordon R. Wilbur, '53, MD '61, and Gregory Wilbur, '56, MBA '60. A third son, Dwight L. Wilbur, '51, MD '55, died in October. Also surviving are a sister, Lois Wilbur Hopper, '27, seven grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
