In Memory of E.R.Ohle
Elpenor R. Ohle, 88, recently of Green Bank, WV, died peacefully in his sleep on May 25, after a long illness. He was born in Keifersfelden, Germany, and emigrated to the U.S. in 1934, becoming a citizen in 1942. He graduated from Harvard Medical School and did his internship and an internal medicine residency at Yale before entering the U.S. Public Health Service in 1944. After his tour of duty with the USPHS, he moved to Celo, NC, where he started his medical practice in the newly opened Celo Health Center. He was an old-fashioned family physician there for nearly 40 years, retiring to active pursuit of his hobby of gardening and landscaping. Friends and neighbors will remember particularly his extensive collection of native azaleas. In 1997, he was honored by the National Weather Service for 50 years of continuous recording of weather in the South Toe Valley.
Dr. Ohle was preceded in death by his parents, Rudolf F. Ohle and Friede Hoffmann Ohle; two sisters Alma Ohle and Carol Ohle Schwintzer; his first wife, Mary Wheeler Ohle; and his second wife, Elisabeth Emmons Ohle. He is survived by his children: Paul Ohle of Hickory, NC; Janet Ghigo of Green Bank, WV; Susan Johnson of Chula Vista, CA; and Charles Ohle of Byron Bay, NSW, Australia. He also leaves three grandchildren, one great-grand child, three step-children, and two step-grandchildren.
During his life, he contributed to medical research through the Harvard Medical School's Physicians' Health Study. He donated his body after death to the nearest medical school. Per his expressed wish, there will be no funeral or memorial services. Friends are asked to honor his memory by doing even one thing in his name to make the world a better place in which to live.
