Dr. Donald Bomkamp

DR. DONALD FRANCIS BOMKAMP

Cedar Rapids

Dr. Donald Francis Bomkamp, 85, of Cedar Rapids, died Monday, Aug. 7, 2017, at the Meth-Wick Community following a long and courageous battle with Alzheimer's disease. Services: 10 a.m. Thursday at All Saints Catholic Church by the Rev. John R. Flaherty. Burial: Mount Calvary Cemetery with military honors. A vigil service will be held at 3 p.m., Wednesday at Teahen Funeral Home, where friends may visit with the family, following the vigil service until 8 p.m. and after 9 a.m. Thursday at the church.

Don was born Feb. 1, 1932, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to Frank and Kathryn Siefert Bomkamp. He attended St. Patrick School and then Roosevelt High School. As a student, he was a member of the Cedar Rapids Drum and Bugle Corps and the Boy Scouts of America, achieving Eagle Scout honors.

After graduating in 1949, he attended Loras College in Dubuque until the Korean War, when he proudly served as a medical corpsman in the U.S. Navy for four years. After his honorable discharge, he resumed his interrupted education at the University of Iowa, where he was elected president of the Phi Rho Sigma medical fraternity. He graduated from the University of Iowa College of Medicine in 1960 and then completed a year of internship at Mercy Medical Center in Cedar Rapids. While a student himself, he also taught a course for junior high students who were interested in entering the medical field. When a group of Cedar Rapids businessmen, known as the West Side Club, asked him to set up his practice on Third Avenue SW, it was the beginning of 53 years of caring for many of the city's families. His first year in practice, he was asked to be the physician at the newly built Meth-Wick Retirement Community, where he spent the last years of his life as a resident.

During his long medical career, he served as president of the Mercy medical staff, as well as president of the Linn County Medical Society. His compassion for his patients and his love for teaching led him to teach a course in "compassion and the bedside manner" at the University of Iowa medical school. He worked tirelessly to build community support for the first hospice program in Cedar Rapids. The program was established at Mercy Medical Center in 1980. Another interest was the medical perspective of the crucifixion and shroud of Jesus, which prompted him to give many lectures on the subject.

As chairman of the Linn County Heart Association in 1977, he created the Senior Olympics to promote fitness, and as a doctor of the football teams at Regis High School and assistant coach of the track team at LaSalle High School, he helped promote fitness for young people through sports.

When he retired from private practice in 1988, he went on to work in urgent care at Mercy Care North and then Mercy Care South. After retiring from there, he worked and volunteered at the Community Health Free Clinic until he retired for a third time at the age of 79. When he first retired, because he wasn't making hospital rounds and house calls or delivering babies, he had more time to develop his talent in woodworking, creating beautiful realistic carvings of fish and birds. Throughout his life he used his creative talent to build many large projects, including a barn, three decks, a TV set and car, all from "scratch." His family could always count on him to fix anything.

His surviving family includes his wife, Evelyn Heefner Bomkamp, whom he met in high school, and married on Dec. 28, 1957 at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Cedar Rapids; his three children, Lisa Anderson, Dana Bomkamp and Bradley (Victoria) Bomkamp; his six grandchildren, Jason Anderson and David, Hannah, Andrew, Alex and Morgan Bomkamp; three great-grandchildren, Chloe Anderson and Kaley and Lacey Bomkamp; and his sister, Loraine Bomkamp.

He was preceded in death by his son, David; and brother, Dr. Daryl Bomkamp.

Don loved his family, his patients and his country, all three could bring tears to his eyes. God gave him the gift of healing and there are many who were touched by that gift and who will shed tears at his passing.

Those who wish to remember him with their gift may direct them, in his name, to Hospice of Mercy or the Community Health Free Clinic. He would be pleased that you remembered him.

Online condolences may be left for the family at www.teahehfuneralhome.com.