Dr. Robert Willkens, doctor and civic leader, dies of H1N1 virus

Robert Willkens was a Renaissance man. The Seattle doctor and professor was a skilled researcher who could bury himself in study or the classroom at the University of Washington where he taught — but loved people too much to quit seeing patients.

He lived for the outdoors, crawled into books and photography and seldom missed a new theater opening. And he still found time to serve on foundations and boards for everything from the Pike Place Market to a nonprofit that provided jobs for the disabled.

Dr. Willkens contributed so often that he didn't seem to need sleep and couldn't retire for good until he'd reached his ninth decade, even after multiple myeloma and a stem-cell transplant left him with a compromised immune system.

Robert Willkens — doctor, civic leader, father, husband — died Wednesday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle of complications from pneumonia and the H1N1 virus. He was 82.

Dr. Willkens was born in Brooklyn in 1927 to German immigrants and was expected to finish Stuyvesant High School, follow his father's footsteps and become a butcher. His mother had other ideas, and pushed young Robert to become more.

He studied biology at Antioch College in Ohio, interrupting his studies to serve two years in the Army just as World War II was coming to an end. He married his sweetheart, Marjory Thompson, in the college chapel on graduation day in 1950 and set off with his bride to the University of Rochester and medical school. They would settle in Seattle in the 1950s, and Dr. Willkens would land at the UW and Harborview, where he'd work for 50 years, but "this man was far, far bigger than his career," said his daughter Becky Willkens.

By the Eisenhower era, Dr. Willkens was on his way to becoming a true polymath. He craved intellectual stimulation — he loved clinical research, but he felt medicine must focus on patients. A specialist in arthritis before most people knew the term rheumatology, he treated the first patients at University Hospital, which later became UW Medical Center. He would go on to become a professor of rheumatology.

He also took up skiing and backpacking and scaled Washington's highest peak, Mount Rainier. He loved photography so much that family members recalled the annual eye-rolling as he futzed with the tripod before snapping Christmas-card photos. He liked travel and modern art and generally took on so many tasks at once that the only thing he seemed to do poorly was drive; family members joked that he had his own chair in the Mercedes body shop.

"He was a terrible driver," Becky Willkens said. "He would be talking on his cellphone and reading the paper and combing his hair all at once."

He applied that same energy to building up his community, believing arts and culture made life richer.

He was the first board president of ACT Theatre. He provided free medical care to broke actors and is believed never to have missed a production.

"Seattle was a bit of a rough-and-ready place in the 1960s," said ACT Artistic Director Kurt Beattie. "He was a very cultural man who had a passion for the art form, and he gave you the feeling when you were around him that you were talking to an enormously well-rounded, exceptionally intelligent man who had a real heart."

He was big enough that he could have dominated conversations, but he tended to hold back until he had real insight: "He had this quiet clarity," said Susan Trapnell, who knew him for 25 years.

"He didn't speak unless he had something to say that hadn't been said."

And even in his 80s, after he'd retired, Dr. Willkens regularly attended meetings of groups such as Skills, Inc., a nonprofit that provides manufacturing jobs for the disabled.

"I think after all those years at Harborview, he just wanted to keep helping people," said Todd Dunnington, head of Skills. And by all accounts he did.

Dr. Willkens is survived by his wife, Marjory Thompson Willkens, of Seattle; daughter Holly Merrick and her husband, Scott, of Edmonds; and daughter Rebecca "Becky" Willkens, of Seattle; son Garen Willkens and his wife, Patti, of Seattle; and son Matthew Willkens and his wife, Diane Valach, of Seattle; and four grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his parents, Robert Albert Willkens, of Brooklyn, and Christine Willkens, of Seattle.

A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., in Seattle. In lieu of flowers, the family has asked that donations be made to the Robert Willkens Endowed Fund at the University of Washington, via Cathy Johnson, Division of Rheumatology, Box 356428, University of Washington, 1959 N.E. Pacific St., Seattle, WA 98195.

Craig Welch: 206-464-2093 or cwelch@seattletimes.com