Newly Named Family Physician of the Year Dies

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths;
In feelings, not in figures on a dial.
We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives
Who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.

-- From Festus, by English poet Philip James Bailey
(1816-1902)

Less than one week after having been honored during the Academy's annual Scientific Assembly in Chicago as the AAFP 2008 Family Physician of the Year, David Demuth, M.D., of York, Neb., died suddenly Oct. 9. He was 57.

Described by one colleague as "a strong example of what a family physician should be," Demuth, a long-time resident of the southeastern Nebraska town, embodied the family medicine model of care. His patient panel spanned the decades, from newborns to the elderly. The care he provided to York's 8,000 residents likewise ran the gamut -- from delivering infants to giving well-child care, youth sports exams and adult checkups, and from working the ER or making rounds at the local hospital to visiting patients in their homes.

Nebraska AFP President Richard Fruehling, M.D., of Grand Island said the news came as a "terrible shock."

In a message to be sent to Nebraska AFP members that he shared with AAFP News Now, Fruehling said, "We share our grief with his wife, Deb, his children and his extended family. David's love of learning, his high standards of care and his willing service of his patients affected all around him."

"We were privileged to know him, and we will miss him terribly."

Nebraska AFP EVP Marcia DeRoin echoed Fruehling's sentiments. "He was such a role model for family medicine," she said. "He will be so greatly missed -- not just by the Academy, but by all his friends and patients."

Demuth joined the Academy in 1976 and became an AAFP Fellow in 1982. After receiving his medical degree from the University of Nebraska College of Medicine in Omaha in 1975, he completed his family medicine residency at McLennan County Family Practice Research Foundation in Waco, Texas.

Demuth was named the Nebraska AFP Family Physician of the Year in 2006, served as chief resident of the McLennan County Family Practice Research Foundation, and was honored as Outstanding Teacher of Family Medicine during his two years of service in the U.S. Navy at Camp Pendleton, Calif.