Dr. Robert A. Eastwood

Robert A. Eastwood, M.D., 84 , passed away at his home south of Darby, March 11, 2022. After a brief stay at Bitterroot Health-Daly Hospital, he went home with support from Bitterroot Health Hospice.  He was surrounded by his wife and 3 children at his death. Dr. Eastwood was raised in Fairfield, MT and graduated from Fairfield High School in 1956. His freshman year of college he attended the University of Oregon in Eugene, returning to his beloved Montana and high school sweetheart for his sophomore year.   He married Stasia Pobanz in September, 1958, and graduated from Montana State University in pre-med in 1961.  He was accepted to medical school at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland, OR, where his two children were born, earning his M.D. degree in 1965. After completing a 3 year internship and residency at San Bernardino, CA in General Practice and Surgery, he was commissioned a Lt. in the U S Navy and served his 2 year active duty obligation during the Vietnam War as a medical officer at the Marine Corps Base in Twentynine Palms, CA.  After his honorable discharge in 1971, he and his family moved to Hamilton, where he entered into private general (family) practice with Dr. Walker Ashcraft. After deciding to become an anesthesiologist, the family moved to Salt Lake City where he began a residency at the University of Utah.  After a year of training, he returned to MT, joining the Deer Lodge Clinic, in Deer Lodge, Montana where he went inside the walls of the old Montana State Prison once a week to provide care to the inmates.  He married Cathy Conner Hawkins in 1974 and in 1975 they moved to Spokane Valley, WA where he was in private practice for 15 years, with privileges to admit patients to all the Spokane hospitals.  In 1989-90 he transitioned into emergency room medicine during the time that Eastern Washington rural hospitals began to meet the growing trend for the fully staffed, 24 hour emergency services that are standard for most hospitals now.  His first ER job was at the hospital on the Washington State University campus that serviced all of Pullman, WA as well as the students.  He fully retired from practicing medicine in 2015 and at that time became a Montana resident once again. Dr. Eastwood was a good old fashioned “country doctor” who did everything from delivering babies to surgeries and everything in between; he even made house calls.  He particularly loved delivering babies and was the last of the family doctors in the Spokane Valley to stop doing deliveries as the rising costs of malpractice insurance rose to prohibitive levels.  He was one to know when a presenting problem was above his expertise and needed referring to a specialist.  After leaving private practice he worked mostly in the rural emergency rooms of Eastern WA,  becoming adept at stabilizing patients before they were transferred by helicopter or fixed wing to the higher level trauma hospitals in Spokane or Seattle.   His expertise and calm demeanor in a crisis was appreciated by all who worked with him. During all of his private practice years, he would arise at 5 am, go to the gym to play racquetball or squash, make rounds at the hospital on his admitted patients, see patients in the office from 8-5, and round again on his inpatients before coming home with a stack of charts to dictate.   He was asked frequently to assist the general surgeons with emergency and scheduled surgeries even if they were not his patients.  Rob (the way he always introduced himself outside the hospital and office) was an avid downhill skier in the winter and was on the National Ski Patrol for many years. He liked to jog, hike, camp, raft, fish, sail, golf and build things in his “spare” time and in his latter years, ride bicycles with a friend, taking week long, supported rides of 500 or more miles for fun.   He was always one to keep himself fit and practiced what he preached to patients and family…..that one has to exercise until one dies. He loved to travel and to visit his children and grandchildren, brother and sister and their families who literally lived from one US coast to the other.  He came back to Montana frequently for Fairfield’s Swim Day and class reunions and for the adventures created by visiting his Montana in-laws in Darby.   He was fortunate to make several trips to Europe, the first one being to ski in Austria and Switzerland;  the last a river cruise in Holland. Many trips were combined with a continuing education opportunity.  He was very proud of his Norwegian roots and shared the first trip to Norway with his mother, brother and sister, learning at that time that he had more relatives in Norway than in the USA.  He stayed in contact with many, hosting two of the family girls as exchange students, one of whom returned to graduate from WSU and later either to visit or join the annual ski trips.  Dr. Eastwood was not much of one to join organizations, but was a past member of the AMA and Opportunity Presbyterian Church in Spokane Valley, WA.  He was a current member of First Presbyterian Church of Sandpoint, ID. Rob is survived by his wife Cathy of Darby; daughter Karen Vanderlaan (Richard) of Mission Viejo, CA; sons Kevin Eastwood (Rose) of Coos Bay, OR and Christopher Hawkins (Corrie) of Fox Island, WA;  sister Deanna Ramey of Orlando, FL;  brother-in-law Mike Conner (Esther) of Darby;  8 grandchildren, 7 great-grandchildren, several grand pups and numerous nieces and nephews.  He was preceded in death by his parents, Floyd and Margaret Eastwood,longtime residents of Fairfield, MT, and brother Dr. Gerald Eastwood of Lusby, MD. Rob wished to be cremated and have a celebration of his life at a time when it was easier for family and friends to gather.  A summer 2022 party and service is being planned.  The family suggests that memorials be made to the Bitterroot Health Foundation, 1200 Westwood Dr., Hamilton, MT 59840 with a designation to Hospice.