Richard Duane Frisbie

Richard Duane Frisbie of Grants Pass, Oregon, passed away peacefully on August 29, 2021.

Richard, known by nickname “Dick”, was born to parents Frank and Mary Frisbie in 1931 in Fairbury, Nebraska. The family moved to Wisconsin when he was very small. Dick was the youngest of five kids. He and his siblings Geneva, Bob, Shirley and Bill, had many adventures growing up on a farm in rural Wisconsin, and he loved sharing the many happy memories formed there with family and friends.

Just before his senior year of high school, he and his parents returned to Nebraska where he graduated from Beatrice High School. He continued his studies at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, then completed medical school in Omaha. It is there that he met a medical technologist in training, Mardy, and they married a week after medical school graduation.

A pediatric internship at Columbus Children’s Hospital in Ohio, was followed by two years practicing medicine as a Captain in the Air Force. During this time, he had the opportunity to work in Guam for a short while – the first of many travel adventures.
After finishing residency back in Columbus, he began his pediatric career in Redlands, California. By this time, Dick and Mardy had three children. Looking for a perfect place to raise their family, they moved to Grants Pass and made their permanent home there.

Dick spent 29 years working at the Grants Pass Clinic and loved his patients and coworkers there. In his off time, he enjoyed singing tenor in the Rogue Valley Chorale and his church choir. His musical talents extended to playing the piano by ear. He could remember the lyrics to most every song he’d ever learned and could sit at the piano and develop a beautiful accompaniment on the spot.

As Dick neared retirement, an opportunity arose for him to travel with the newly formed Northwest Medical Teams (now Medical Teams International) to a Cambodian refugee camp in Thailand. That was the first of several medical mission trips for him, and it was made monumental by his friendship with his interpreter who eventually immigrated along with his family to Grants Pass. During those years, he worked in a feeding camp in Ethiopia, and eventually, after his retirement from the Grants Pass Clinic, he and Mardy went to Romania for a year to work with World Vision. The last few years of his career consisted of working as a part-time doctor for Our Valley Clinic, and another medical mission trip –this time to Rwanda. During his retirement years, Dick also volunteered with ESL students in the local public schools.

Dick will be dearly missed and remembered for his sense of humor, kindness, love of music and sense of service.

Dick is survived by his wife of 65 years, Mardy; son, Steve (Pat); daughters, Jane (Scott) and Mary Kate (Charles); and grandsons, Jeff (Lu) and Greg.

A private interment service will held at Hillcrest Memorial Park. People wishing to honor Dick’s memory can make donations to Medical Teams International, World Vision, or St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Grants Pass.