In Memory

Robert Seymour - Class Of 1952

Dr. Robert Seymour, a San Francisco neurosurgeon who developed a surgical technique to treat patients with a pituitary disorder associated with excessive growth, died October 18, 2011, at age 77.  He was at home, surrounded by his family and caring hospice nurses.  Born on August 30, 1934, he grew up in San Marino, became an Eagle Scout, and then graduated from Stanford University with honors.  There, he also played varsity football.

After graduating from Stanford Medical School in 1960, he spent two years training in general surgery at the University of Minnesota and completed a neurosurgery residency at the University of California, San Francisco.  While still in residency, Dr. Seymour experimented in stereotactic surgery, then a new, minimally invasive procedure.  Dr. Seymour developed a technique that used cold therapy, called cryohypophysectomy, to treat a rare pituitary disease called acromegaly, which is associated with excessive growth.  The technique is still used today.

Although a stroke at age 57 cut short his surgical career, his condition improved greatly through intensive rehabilitation.  He died of esophageal cancer at his home in Tiburon, where he moved last year with his wife, Ann, after living in San Francisco for more than 40 years.

Dr. Seymour requested that no services be held.  "I do not plan to be the corpse of honor at a funeral," he told his family.  He is survived by his wife, Ann; daughters Jennifer Biederbeck of San Francisco and Norrie Cavallero of Hillsborough; and three grandsons.