Dr. Stuart S. Roberts, 71, a trauma surgeon who pioneered the practice of using helicopters to transport and treat critically wounded patients, died Tuesday, Jan. 16, at home in Peoria of Parkinson’s Plus disease.
A Champaign native, Dr. Roberts developed one of the first hospital-based helicopter rescue programs while working at the Ohio State University College of Medicine in Columbus in the late 1960s, his family said.
Seeing a need to transport highway accident victims to hospitals more quickly, Dr. Roberts worked out an agreement in 1967 with the Army National Guard to use its helicopters to transport patients, his family said.
He presented a paper on the subject at a 1970 American Surgical Association conference titled “Medicopter: An Airborne Intensive Care Unit.”
In addition to his work with helicopters, Dr. Roberts established a reputation as a skilled surgeon for liver trauma patients. In 1970, the U.S. Army asked him to return to active duty to aid medical rescue efforts in the Vietnam War.
With the rank of lieutenant colonel, Dr. Roberts became chief surgical consultant in charge of coordinating surgeons in Vietnam, his daughter Cynthia said. He took part in more than 80 combat missions, flying in a Red Cross helicopter in search of the wounded and participating in raids on prisoner-of-war camps, his daughter said.
He earned a Bronze Star and the Legion of Merit for his efforts.
“He went 300 percent for his patients,” his daughter said.
After serving for a year in Vietnam, Dr. Roberts returned to Ohio State University, where he was the first to hold the Robert M. Zollinger chair of surgery.
In 1972, he moved to Peoria to join the faculty of the University of Illinois College of Medicine and open a private practice.
There, he helped develop one of the state’s early hospital-based helicopter rescue programs, his daughter said. He remained active at the school until he stopped performing surgery in 1993.
Standing at 6 foot 3 with coal-black hair, Dr. Roberts was an imposing man, but he was known for his warmth and dedication to patients.
“I have witnessed a passion for surgery and a compassion for patients that bursts from Stu’s being,” Dr. Loren J. Humphrey, a colleague and former patient, said of Dr. Roberts in a university publication.
Dr. Roberts, who married his wife, Letitia, in 1952, received his undergraduate, master’s and medical degrees through the University of Illinois system.
He spent two years training at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York and was a professor at the University of Illinois College of Medicine in the early 1960s.
He directed the surgery residency program at the college from 1975 to 1986 and won numerous teaching and research awards.
After retiring from surgery, Dr. Roberts worked as the medical director of group insurance for Caterpillar Tractor Co. in Peoria until 1999. That year, the University of Illinois College of Medicine established an endowed lectureship for excellence in surgical education in his honor.
In addition to his wife and daughter, Dr. Roberts is survived by a son, David; daughters Diane Parrish and Suzanne Austin; a sister, Shirley; and 11 grandchildren.
Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Monday in the Woolsey-Wilton Funeral Home, 2408 W. Willow Knolls Drive, Peoria. Funeral services will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday in St. Philomena Catholic Church in Peoria.
