Donald C. Reusch, MD

Donald C. Reusch, MD, died peacefully on November 10th at the seasoned age of 98, one month shy of his 99th birthday. He grew up in northern Kentucky and came east to attend Harvard University in 1941. His college years were interrupted when he served for 2 years in the US Army: basic training in Texas, followed by coursework in chemistry at Stanford. Upon his return to Cambridge Don began singing in the Harvard Glee Club, which is where he met Ginny at a ‘mixer’ with the Radcliffe Choral Society.  Both Don and Ginny loved telling the story of that ‘mixer’ occasion, the start of a wonderful life together. They married on June 27, 1949, and lived to celebrate their 70th anniversary on June 27, 2019!

It’s hard to tell Don’s story without including Ginny. They were a team who supported one another in many ways, the first being Don’s medical school coursework. His residency and internship involved living in Cleveland for 2 years. Medical school completed, Don and Ginny moved back to Massachusetts and settled in South Easton where their three children, Doug, Cathy and David, were raised. Don was always cheerful, caring, and kind. He was a fun person to be around! He cared for his patients, his friends and family with a generous, gentle heart. People who needed an “ear” or “a shoulder” sought him out, including students in high school and college. Don always had time to listen, and believed that giving time to truly listen to his patients’ needs was his key to a wonderful, fulfilling medical career. During his 35 years in practice, he taught medical students from Tufts, fought for a more modern cardiac unit at the Goddard Hospital in Stoughton, and developed and taught courses on the hazards of tobacco.

Don was a gardener of the first order. Each spring in the ‘70s and ‘80s he raised dozens upon dozens of vegetables and flower seedings for the annual spring plant sale put on by the Natural Resources Trust of Easton (NRT), a land trust which Ginny helped found in 1967. Don grew the plants in a marvelous 1920s greenhouse beginning in March each year. He would swing by to check on their progress en route home from his evening rounds at the hospital. He truly loved that yearly project! Don also grew horseradish which he prepared for sale at the NRT’s fall harvest festival. It earned the nickname “Reusch Radish'' and was a coveted item. When Don was 95 he decided that he and Cath should vegetatively propagate his African violet plants. His apartment became a mini-greenhouse with two dozen thriving plants!

Don will always be remembered for his love of reading! He was always reading: Scientific American (cover to cover each month), Smithsonian, the New England Journal of Medicine. While at Huntington Common Don frequently shared medical articles with the nurses. He was eager to learn about any subject, especially texts that related to the careers of his grown children and grandchildren. Don derived an especially large amount of pleasure and knowledge from his annual garden and seed catalogs. No surprise there! Over the past nine decades Don has been a truly remarkable reader.

“Retirement” does not really describe Don and Ginny’s lifestyle when both retired: they packed their bags and moved to North Berwick in 1992 to be neighbors of Cathy and Chris and their first two grandchildren, Caleb and Caroline. Within a month’s time they had become active members of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Sanford, easily making new friends. Many of those friendships have only strengthened over the past three decades. Best of all, they both continued their love of singing, joining the choir and singing whenever possible.

Don was a busy retiree, participating in the North Berwick Historical Society and on the D.A. Hurd Building Committee, as well as helping out the Great Works Regional Land Trust. He continued to garden with Cathy in her vegetable gardens. Growing horseradish didn’t stop when he moved to Maine: he started a new patch which he continued to harvest and make into his much sought after “Reusch Radish”. Don also became a gourmet chef! Lighting up Banana Fosters for his grandchildren was a special treat which the kids, of course, loved. The long life of “Don”, “Dad”, “Grampa” was full of dear friendships, four wonderful grandchildren, and his lifelong sweetheart of 70 years, Ginny. When she died in 2019, his entire family stood by him, enriching his life without her, and easing him through rough waters. We will all remember the great love he brought to those who were fortunate to know him.

Don leaves behind his children and grandchildren: Douglas Reusch and wife Julia Daly, daughters Bridget and Moriah, Farmington, Maine; Catherine Mende and husband Christopher, son Caleb, North Berwick, and daughter Caroline, Flagstaff, AZ; and David Reusch and wife Angela Marie “Mouse” of Seattle, WA.

A Celebration of Life will be held June 10 at 11am at the Sanford Unitarian Universalist Church, 5 Lebanon Street, Sanford, ME 04073

In lieu of flowers, donations in Don’s memory may be made to the Great Works Regional Land Trust., P.O. Box 151, South Berwick, ME 03908

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Donald C. Reusch, MD, please visit our floral store.