Richard Sloan Wilbur, M.D., J.D. 1924-2025
Richard Sloan Wilbur, M.D., J.D., of Lake Forest, Illinois, died peacefully August 6, 2025, at the age of 101. He was born April 8, 1924, in Boston, Massachusetts to Blake Colburn and Mary Caldwell Wilbur (née Sloan) of Palo Alto, California. “Dick”, as his friends and family called him, grew up in Palo Alto, CA near the Stanford University campus, where his grandfather served as University President, and where his father was a founder of the Palo Alto Clinic. His education
was accelerated by both his aptitude and the outbreak of World War II. He began studies at Stanford at age 16, earning both a bachelor’s degree (Phi Betta Kappa) and a medical degree by 1944. He joined the US Navy in 1942, working as a doctor in Naval District 12.
In 1951, Dick married Betty Lou Fannin of Phoenix, Arizona, also a Stanford graduate, and after
further medical education and residencies, practiced medicine at the Palo Alto Clinic for 15 years.
Dick and Betty Lou raised their three sons in nearby Los Altos Hills, CA.
Dick’s experience with the group practice of medicine at his Clinic and the rapid increase in
government involvement in healthcare in the 1960’s led to his continuing interest in medical
administration and governance. He worked closely with California Blue Shield and in 1967 was
appointed by Governor Ronald Reagan to a commission on efficiency and cost control in
government healthcare. In 1969, he was recruited as Deputy Executive Vice President of the
American Medical Association, headquartered in Chicago, and moved his family to Lake Forest,
Illinois.
In 1971, President Richard Nixon appointed Dick as the Assistant Secretary of Defense for
Health and Environment. At the Department of Defense, his efforts focused on combating drug
use by servicemen returning from Vietnam through screening and treatment, ending the doctor
draft by increasing incentives for doctors in the military health system, and banning the use of
Agent Orange and directing its safe disposal. For his service to the nation, the DoD awarded Dick
their Medal for Distinguished Service and he was admitted to the National Academy of Medicine.
His DoD work involved global travel, and because Betty Lou was appointed to chair an advisory
committee of Surgeons General wives, they frequently traveled together to inspect military
bases. Their favorite plane was an old but comfortable prop once used by JFK and their most
exotic visit was to the Emperor of Ethiopia.
Over the subsequent decades, Dick and Betty Lou continued to explore the world, visiting every
continent except Antarctica. Dick held executive positions in a host of medical organizations,
including the AMA, Baxter Laboratories, the Red Cross, and MedicAlert Foundation. Seeing that
small medical specialty societies needed to combine their efforts, he organized the creation of the
Council of Medical Specialty Societies (CMSS).
Through his work as a medical executive, Dick developed an appreciation for the intersection of
medicine and law. In 1990, at the age of 66, he earned a law degree from John Marshall Law
School to better work on medical-legal issues. He was a founding member of, and lifelong
participant in, the World Association for Medical Law (WAML). He consulted on medical
education, both in the United States and abroad, and was admitted to the Bar of the Supreme
Court of the United States in 2016. He continued his work at the AMA, the Society of Medical
Administrators, and the American College of Legal Medicine for the remainder of his life and was
a member of over a dozen other professional societies. His interest in medical law was truly an
enduring one; even as a centenarian, he still participated in world conferences, wrote journal
articles, edited publications, and attended forums. He attended a WAML meeting in Indonesia
last year and planned to participate in another in Istanbul in August 2025. Just last May, he
mentored his CMSS replacement as delegate to the AMA general assembly.
Throughout his life, Dick enjoyed time at his cabin in the Sierras with his extended family, for the
final time just last July. Despite the lack of electricity there, Dick kept busy by walking through his
favorite meadows, sharing stories around the outdoor stove, and winning several Bridge
tournaments.
He is survived by his sons Andrew (Debra) of Lake Bluff, IL, Peter of Chicago, IL, Thomas
(Rosseta) of Lake Forest, IL, grandchildren Karen, Curtis, Clayton, Elsa, and Catherine, as well as
his sister Mary Ives Harrison and brother Colburn Wilbur, both of Palo Alto, CA, and many nieces
and nephews. He is preceded in death by his loving wife of 72 years, Betty Lou, his parents, Blake
and Mary Wilbur, as well as his brother Charles Wilbur and sister Lorraine Dicke.