ANNISQUAM: Robert Nelson Lundberg, MD, respected surgeon, died peacefully at home on Tuesday, Nov. 18, of natural causes. He was the husband of Doris (Brunell) Lundberg.
Dr. Lundberg was born in Gloucester in 1919, son of Paul F. Lundberg, a Swedish immigrant who worked in the granite quarries in Bay View and Rockport and later became City Assessor, and B. Elizabeth Lundberg, a first-generation Swedish girl from Lanesville who taught Sunday school and took in boarders. He grew up in Lanesville, attending the Lane School and graduating from Gloucester High School in 1936. Despite his many later accomplishments, he remained always proud of the Sawyer Medal he earned there.
Lundberg had planned to work for his uncles’ construction business, the Faulk Brothers, after high school, but Leslie O. Johnson, the high school principal, convinced him he should go to college and helped him get a scholarship to the University of Maine. It was the dean at the University of Maine who suggested a career as a doctor and arranged an interview for him at the Cornell Medical School, where he earned his medical degree.
He served his country as a Naval Surgeon Lieutenant at the close of World War II as well as aboard the USS Missouri during the Korean Conflict and at Chelsea Naval Hospital as Assistant Chief of Surgery in 1954.
He met his wife, Doris, who was a nurse, during his residency at Hartford Hospital, a prestigious big-city teaching hospital. He was offered the opportunity to set up practice there. He chose instead to practice at Gloucester’s Addison Gilbert hospital with Dr. Warren Babson, as it was most important to him to raise his family in a good place. He was well-known in Gloucester as a respected citizen and dedicated physician for the rest of his life.
As a community doctor, Dr. Lundberg often traded his medical and surgical services for offerings of fish and other goods and services. One patient provided half a pig; the ham and bacon hung in the attic at the family home for a couple of months.
Dr. Lundberg served as President of the Massachusetts Chapter of the American College of Surgeons in 1981, as Executive Councilor of the Massachusetts Medical Society from 1978 to 1981, as President of the Essex South Medical Society in 1975, and as President of the Essex Surgical Society. He was a member of the New England and Boston Surgical Societies. He also served his community as Chairman of its Board of Health.
Dr. Lundberg was elected Chief of Staff at Addison Gilbert Hospital from 1961 to 1966 and also served as Chief of Surgery. He served in these positions as well as on many medical Staff committees with diligence and wisdom and always in the best interests of the Hospital and its patients.
A long-time golfer who played at many of the world’s great courses, his favorite was Bass Rocks, where he served as President in the 1970s. He wrote a history of the golf club in 1995.
In 1978, the Corporation of the Addison Gilbert Hospital, recognizing his contribution to the Hospital and to the community, elected him a Member of the Board of Trustees, and in 1983, a Charter member of the Addison Gilbert Foundation, which he later served as Chairman.
Dr. Lundberg stayed in touch with the community after retirement, often calling people he’d worked with or treated over the years when he saw one of their family members mentioned in the paper.
In 2006, a floor of the hospital was dedicated in his name with the words: “Compassionate, skilled physician, leader in medicine and philanthropy, concerned and involved neighbor and friend.”
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Paul Lundberg and his wife, Christine of Gloucester, Mark Lundberg and his wife Andrea of Deerfield, IL, Margaret Stevens and her husband Bradford of Denver, CO, Matthew Lundberg and his wife Rosemary of New York City and Abbie Lundberg and her husband Tony Gross of Gloucester, twelve grandchildren, Anne Lundberg; Stephanie, Taylor and Mason Lundberg; Rebecca, Abby and Brit Stevens; Peter, Patrick and Casey Lundberg; Alex and Lucy Gross. His greatest joy was his family.
A memorial service will be held at the Annisquam Village Church on Saturday, Nov. 29, at 11 a.m. Relatives and friends are cordially invited to attend. Memorial contributions may be made in his memory to the Lundberg Medical Arts Floor at the Addison Gilbert Hospital.