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Willard Weeks 2002.JPG

WILLARD T. WEEKS

1929-2011

PELHAM, MA – Willard Travell Weeks, 82, an accomplished family physician in Amherst, MA, died of pneumonia on Monday, December 26, 2011, at the Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton, MA.

Born on October 16, 1929 in Manhattan to Harold Eastman Weeks, a 1907 electrical engineering graduate of MIT, and Virginia McQueen Travell (Virginia T. Weeks, M.D.), a 1921 graduate of Wellesley College and 1925 graduate of Cornell University Medical College, he was raised in Brooklyn Heights, NY and attended Brooklyn Friends School.

Will graduated from Amherst College in 1951 and Cornell University Medical College in 1955. After a one year internship at Maine General Hospital, he spent two years in the Indian Health Service as a conscientious objector working with indigenous people in North Dakota, Arizona, and Alaska in Bethel and on Saint Paul Island in midst of the Bering Sea. This was followed by two years in a general practice residency with the US Public Health Service in Norfolk, VA. He married Mary Beverly James in Richmond, VA on April 16, 1960. They settled in Amherst, MA where he took over the medical practice of Dr. Robert W. Gage. Prior to their divorce in 1981, Will and Beverly had two children. In 1966, he partnered with Dr. Ronald Loescher in a practice that later expanded to become Amherst Medical Associates. In 1985, Will returned to solo practice in Amherst.

Will was also active in the Amherst Town Meeting and served on the Citizens’ Advisory Committee, the Amherst Redevelopment Authority, and as Treasurer of Interfaith Housing, which successfully developed low-income housing at Village Park in Amherst.

0n July 3, 1993, Will married Barbara Stevens Roberts, a 1953 graduate of Smith College, with a Ph.D. in Political Science from Yale in 1963. They lived in Pelham, MA and together shared a deep Christian faith and a passion for gardening, nature and the arts. He retired in 1994.

A gentle man of the woods, Will’s other passions included raising Labrador Retrievers, building log cabins and ponds, hunting, fishing, skiing, cooking, eating, photography, woodworking, making apple cider and maple syrup, all of which he delightfully shared with others.

He leaves his wife, Barbara Stevens Weeks; a son, Daniel Eastman Weeks of Pittsburgh, PA; a daughter, Virginia Louise Weeks of Roslindale, MA; two sisters, Virginia Davidson Weeks of Lake Placid, NY and Elinor Eastman Weeks of Norfolk, VA; a brother, Sheldon Griswold Weeks of Botswana, Africa; a grandson, Patrick Joseph Weeks of Pittsburgh, PA; and many nieces and nephews.

A memorial service will be planned at a later date. Memorial gifts may be made to: the Amherst College Annual Fund, P.O. Box 5000, Amherst, MA 01002-5000 (include name & class), or the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Development Department, 1000 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11225.

Family & Friends can view and share memories of Will at the website: http://danieleweeks.com