PILLINGER, JR., Herbert Henry

The Arizona Republic, Phoenix, Arizona Tuesday, July 8, 2003 Herbert Henry Pillinger Jr. M.D. Born August 2, 1922 Elgin, Illinois, died July 6, 2003 Apache Junction, Arizona. The quality of a man's life is in deeds and their impact upon those he encounters. My father, mother Kathryn, brother Tom, and myself Terry were traveling to our grandparents in Florida during the mid 1950's. We had stopped at the battlefields surrounding Chattanooga Tennessee where my father bought my brother and me Union Officer's hats and toy guns. We continued our trip into Georgia singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic and Here We Go a Marching From Atlanta to The Sea. Stopping for gas in a small Georgia town he told Tom and me to stop singing. The tone of his voice indicated he was serious. We were perplexed because he always loved to sing with us. The station was dirty, run down and peopled by surly men in overalls. Tom and I accompanied my father to the restroom. There were three such rooms marked Men, Women and Colored. My father whispered "how would you like it if you had to go to the bathroom with girls". He said those men hated black people and that they didn't like us either because we were from the North. I'm thankful for having a father who took the time to teach me the golden rule of treating others the way I wanted to be treated, for revealing the insanity of hate whether based on race, religion or geography and giving us many great vacations filled with history, adventure and love. My mother and I will always remember dinner with the smell of antiseptic on his clothes and the blood stains on his shoes. His graphically entertaining depictions of surgical exploits were usually funny but sometimes left me with little appetite. Father created the greatest of Christmas's with trees toy trains (which I still have) and Christmas carols. We always shared this special day with our relatives the Masons who still live in Elgin, Illinois. He taught my brother and me to shoot straight (my mother was already an accomplished shot). We employed this skill every fall when we hunted Mourning Doves with our friends the Schneffs, also of Elgin. The thousands of daily adventures triumphs and tragedies of my father's life came to an end on the 6th day of July 2003 in Apache Junction Arizona two thousand miles from where he was born to Dr. H.H. Pillinger Sr. and Velma Pillinger. After going through college and medical school (in six years) he practiced medicine with his father. He had only one wife Kathryn Barbara whom he married while serving as a Captain in the U.S. Army during the Second World War and two sons Thomas Craig, who died in 2001 and Terry both lawyers. Perhaps my father's choice of heroes Lincoln, Jackson and Jefferson, all three of whom were attorneys, influenced our choice of profession. In lieu of flowers, please send donations to The Phoenix Zoo, 455 North Galvin Parkway, Phoenix, AZ 85008 in the name of Dr. Herbert H. Pillinger Jr. There will be no services as his life was a testament onto itself.