Steamboat Pilot & Today

Robin Anderson, M.D.

1919-2002

Robin Anderson was born May 13, 1919, in New York City and grew up in Passaic, N.J. He graduated from Princeton College with a degree in physics, Class of 1939, and Harvard Medical School, Class of 1943.

He joined the Army in December 1944 and served as a plastic surgeon in a medical corps supporting Allied troops as they advanced across Germany. He was honorably discharged as a Major in 1945.

Following the war, he completed his surgical training at Ohio State and Washington universities. He went to Cleveland in 1951 to found the Department of Plastic Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic, where he practiced for the next 28 years. He served on the Board of the Cleveland Institute of Music and sang in the Cleveland Orchestra Chorus under Robert Shaw. He was a member of the Rowfant Club.

He participated professionally in many medical associations and published more than 50 papers, as well as a definitive text on surgery of the parotid gland. In 1973 he was elected president of the Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeons and in 1980 was elected vice chairman of the American Board of Plastic Surgery.

He retired from the Cleveland Clinic in 1979 and moved to Steamboat Springs, where he pursued his lifelong love of skiing and the outdoors, as well as a host of personal interests including music, modern art and harpsichord making.

He was a member of the Steamboat Rotary Club and was active in the Steamboat Repertory Theater and Steamboat Springs Arts Council.

He is survived by his wife of 30 years, Diane Anderson. Also surviving are four children by his first wife, Mrs. Jean Thomas Swetland: Christine Anderson of Sciolze, Italy; Dane Anderson of Swarthmore, Pa.; Carol Juliano of Las Vegas; and Chace Anderson of Cleveland Heights, Ohio; as well as seven grandchildren.

Donations may be made to the Cleveland Institute of Music or to the Society for the Blind. Plans for a memorial service have not yet been finalized.