Dr. John R. Gehring, prominent Wellesley ophthalmologist and surgeon at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary and at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, died on December 23, 2008 in Chestnut Hill after a nine-month struggle with cancer. He was 81.
Dr. Gehring was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan in 1927 to Carl and Hester Gehring. He was very active in extracurricular activities at the University High School in Ann Arbor, starring on the varsity basketball team, taking many lead roles in the theater, and serving as Student Council President his senior year. After graduating in 1945 he enlisted in the United States Navy and was discharged honorably in August of 1946, although he continued to serve in the Naval Reserve through August 1951.
Dr. Gehring matriculated at the University of Michigan, receiving a Bachelor of Science with Distinction in 1950, and went on to Harvard Medical School, graduating Phi Beta Pi in 1953. After interning at Philadelphia General Hospital and serving as a general practitioner in Piney Fork, Ohio, he decided to specialize in ophthalmology and entered a residency at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary in 1958, completing it in 1961.
It was during this time that he met his wife-to-be, Dr. Eeva-Liisa Martola of Helsinki, Finland, also an ophthalmologist. The two were married in 1962 in Ann Arbor and lived in Lowell before moving to Wellesley in 1966, raising three sons on Upwey Road and Maugus Avenue. They retired together in 2000 and moved to West Newton in 2004.
Throughout his career Dr. Gehring served as a surgeon at Mass. Eye and Ear and at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, while also maintaining a private practice with Dr. Martola at the Fraser Medical Building on Washington Street in Wellesley. A third associate there was Dr. Byron S. Lingeman of Wellesley, who had been a fellow resident with Dr. Gehring at MEEI and a fellow intern at Philadelphia General. “John’s dedication to his patients and his teaching abilities were superb,” Dr. Lingeman said. “It was a pleasure to know him personally and professionally for so many years.”
Dr. Gehring was very involved with professional organizations, helping found the Massachusetts Society of Eye Physicians and Surgeons in the mid-1960s and serving as its Vice-President and President in the early 1980s. He also served as Secretary for the New England Ophthalmological Society in the 1960s.
Outside of medicine, Dr. Gehring was an experienced mountain climber and spelunker who summitted the Matterhorn in Switzerland and explored Crystal Cave in Kentucky. He was an avid photographer, opera aficionado, and tennis and squash player, and he was enamored of the poetry of Robert Frost, who was a friend of his father Carl.
In addition to his wife, Dr. Gehring is survived by his three sons, John C. of Beaverton, OR, Erik W. of Roslindale, MA, and Christopher R. of North Attleboro, MA; by his two grandchildren, Asha and Jason of Beaverton, OR; and by his brother Frederick W. of Ann Arbor, MI and sister Barbara of Alton, IL.
A memorial service will be held at the Doherty Funeral Home at 477 Washington Street in Wellesley on Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 12 noon. In lieu of flowers expressions of sympathy may be made in his name to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, 10 Brookline West 6th floor, Brookline, MA 02445 or the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, PO Box 27106, NY, NY 10087-7105.