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Winfield Dow Edgerton, son of Winfield Dow and Kathryn Anna (Hale) Edgerton.

born:	November 8, 1924; Deering, Pemiscot Co., MO. (SSDI)
died:	December 13, 2009; Davenport, Scott Co., IA. (SSDI)
buried:	Oakdale Memorial Gardens; Davenport, Scott Co., IA.

married:

June 24, 1945; Poplar Bluff, Butler Co., MO. (Co. VR W:358) (MA The Sikeston Herald 6/7/1945)

Rose Marie Cahill, daughter of Guy Edmond and Rose (Knickerbocker) Cahill.

Children:

Winfield Dow.

The following obituary for Winfield Dow Edgerton II was published by the Weerts Funeral Home (Davenport, Iowa):

“Dr. W. Dow Edgerton, 85, of Davenport, Iowa, died Sunday, December 13, 2009 at Crest Health Center, Davenport. A Memorial Service will be held at 10 AM Saturday, April 17, 2010 at Edwards Congregational – United Church of Christ in Davenport. Burial will be in Oakdale Memorial Gardens. Memorials may be made to Edward’s Congregational, UCC or to the Edgerton Women’s Clinic.

Winfield Dow Edgerton was born in 1924 to Winfield Dow and Anna Kathryn Edgerton in Caruthersville, Missouri. Named Leonard Dow Edgerton at birth, he was re-named at 8 weeks of age on the death of his father. His two grandfathers, Lorenzo Dow Edgerton and George Augustus Hale, were excellent mentors and father substitutes during his formative years. On June 24, 1945, he married Rose Marie Cahill in Poplar Bluff, Missouri.

Educated in public schools in Caruthersville and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, he attended Central College in Fayette, Missouri and received his M.D. degree from Washington University in St. Louis. Interning at St. Luke's Hospital in St. Louis, he began his residency training at Chicago Lying-In Hospital, completing it at the U.S. Naval Hospital, Chelsea, Massachusetts. In addition he served as a Fellow in pathology at the Free Hospital for Women in Brookline, Massachusetts, under Dr. Arthur Hertig and Dr. John Rock. Residency training in obstetrics and gynecology was interrupted by sea duty where he served as medical officer on ships of the Military Sea Transportation Service. Upon completion of residency training, he was assigned duty as Chief of Dependents at the U.S. Naval Air Station, Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Maryland. Upon leaving active duty in the Navy, he moved to Davenport, Iowa in 1955 and was associated in practice with Dr. Walter Balzer, retiring from practice in 1986.

Instrumental in forming the Maternal Health Center to provide ob-gyn care to low income women, he helped establish the residency program at the Center with residents and students from the University of Iowa serving at the Center and at St. Luke’s Hospital. He was appointed Clinical Assistant Professor and promoted to Associate and on to Clinical Professor. Developing an early interest in laparoscopy, he taught the procedures both locally and in post-graduate courses throughout the United States and in many foreign countries. He wrote a number of published papers and contributed chapters to textbooks. An active member of St. Luke’s and Mercy Hospitals medical staffs, he served several times as Chief of Obstetrics and Gynecology, where he was also President of the medical staff. An active member of the Scott County Medical Society, he served as Delegate to the Iowa Medical Society, and as President of the Scott County Society. He was a Fellow of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologist, a member of the Central Association of Obstetricians and Gynecologists and a founding member of the American Association of Gynecologic Laparoscopists.

A strong advocate for health care for women, regardless of their income level, he embraced the idea of local disadvantaged women receiving the same quality and dignity of care as those who had means to pay. In 1972, in cooperation with other civic leaders, he started Maternal Health Center, which was renamed Edgerton Women’s Clinic in 2001. For 28 years, he was the Center’s medical director, retiring in 2000.

Dr. Edgerton was known by colleagues, medical staff, and patients as a skillful physician, a strong advocate for women’s health, a caring and gentle healer, and a compassionate man. He enjoyed thoroughly the practice of medicine and loved teaching. He had a long-standing love affair with the Pacific Islands and traveled extensively among them. He was a long-time member and lay-leader at Edwards Congregational United Church of Christ.

He is survived by his wife, their son, Rev. Winfield Dow (Marcia Smith) Edgerton, III, Ph.D., Professor of Ministry at Chicago Theological Seminary, and two grandsons, Peter Dow (Gabrielle Bloom) Edgerton and John Marlow (Heather Upshaw) Edgerton, and a great-granddaughter, Eliza Cynthia Edgerton.”