Dr. Becker!!!

Auburn: Friends, patients, family mourn loss, recall the brilliance of Dr. Virgil Becker

By ROBERT WHALEAuburn Reporter News reporterAug 20 2008

Eagle Scout by 14, student at West Point, holder of legal and medical degrees, past member of the Secret Service, trained pilot, farmer, photographer, veteran of Desert Storm.

In his 58 years on earth, Dr. Virgil Tory Becker seemed to be everywhere, doing everything.
Not only was the Auburn doctor a top-flight surgeon, but he also excelled at diagnosing and working with his patients. President of the Enumclaw Regional Hospital Medical Staff, he wrote an internationally published paper on orthopedic back surgery.

Yet somehow in his crowded life, Becker found time to run marathons and to hike Mount Rainier and Mount St. Helens. One trip up St. Helens in 2007 with his youngest daughter, Barbara, then 9, put the girl in the books as the youngest child ever to make the climb.

Hundreds of patients and family members gathered last Friday afternoon at Wabash Presbyterian Church for a memorial service honoring Becker, who died in a plane crash July 27 in the rugged area of Bald Mountain north of Arlington. Also killed were the pilot, 47-year-old Brenda L. Houston of Enumclaw, and her 10-year-old daughter, Elizabeth M. Crews of Enumclaw.

Lynn Nieland, Becker’s nurse in the operating room for 18 years, recalled a man who felt as at home at the hospital as he did on the family’s 40-acre farm in Enumclaw, so at home in fact he wore his farming boots on rounds, much to the puzzlement and amusement of his patients.
Nieland recalled being at her mother’s house in North Carolina recently when the phone rang. It was Dr. Becker, asking if by chance her mother had a moonshine still. Now what would a conformed Scotch drinker such as Becker be wanting with a moonshine still? Well, he replied, he had some lavender and wanted to make fragrances.

“Now here’s this man who taught us how to sheer sheep, wore his boots and was out on his backhoe doing all the manly, manly stuff, but he had some lavender, and he would like a still to make some fragrances,” Nieland said. “He was a man who did it all, who brought us the honey that he made.

“Lucky me and all of us to have known him, worked with him, learned from him. No one will ever be like that again,” Nieland said.

Sylvia Parker, a member of the Franciscan Health System Board and a friend, described some of Becker’s special qualities.

“You know how there are some people that the minute you meet them you know they are extraordinary? I have rarely met that many people who were as funny and unusual in their brilliance,” said Parker.

“... He was very deliberate and very fastidious, but he was such a quiet person about his accomplishments. And that’s the thing I found so extraordinary. Because usually people who have done a third of what he’s done would be shouting to the heavens about how clever they are. I learned about his accomplishments from other people,” Parker said.

Dennis Popp, chief operating officer of Enumclaw Regional Hospital, said the hospital had a unique relationship with Becker and his wife, Dr. Nancy Becker.

“Virgil had a portion of his medical practice in Enumclaw, but a very small portion of it at our hospital. But because of his interest in supporting Enumclaw Regional Hospital and making his home close by, he devoted significant time and energy and wisdom to the hospital. Using his medical training, his legal background, his experiences and a lot of common sense, he participated in a lot of intelligent discussions and helped make some very practical and keen decisions with the board of directors and the medical staff.”

Becker is survived by his wife, Dr. Nancy Becker; daughters, Barbara, Jane, Carol, and Diane; his mother Barbara MacIntosh (San Marino); his brothers, William (Enumclaw), and Brian (San Marino).

A private graveside service at Tahoma National Cemetery preceded the memorial. Donations may be made to the Virgil V. Becker Destination Imagination Fund at Mt. Rainier Bank in Enumclaw.