Dr. Rudolph Heilpern, 84, Storyteller, General Practitioner, Caring Volunteer

Ever since persuading a customs officer not to confiscate his passport as he was fleeing Nazi-occupied Austria, Dr. Rudolph Heilpern did things big and did them right.

Renton, his home since 1942, is 5,000 babies richer for his delivery-room efforts.

Hundreds of patients are healthier for his refusal to do unnecessary surgeries.

And the world at large is the better for the tales about his adventuresome life.

"He was an excellent storyteller," said his wife, Anne-Marie Heilpern of Issaquah. "He would start on his life story and be good for an hour. It was great when we entertained. I could sit him down with our guests, then go cook uninterrupted.

"We were married 10 years before I ever heard a story repeated."

Dr. Heilpern, who earned his medical degree in Vienna, died of stomach cancer Oct. 12. He was 84.

He was well known for his Continental manners, empathetic way and strict ethics.

One East Indian patient was said to be so pleased with his handling of the birth of her child that she had her sister come to the United States so Dr. Heilpern could deliver her baby.

"It was not unusual to have him called out two or three times a night," his wife said.

She added that at one time her husband, a general practitioner who could perform many procedures, once was censured by a newspaper for not performing radical mastectomies on breast-cancer patients.

"But he never had a problem with the lumpectomies," she said, "and finally the medical community came around to his thinking."

A colleague, Dr. Neal Jensen, called Dr. Heilpern "a superlative, ethical man" who was intellectually curious and physically fit.

"He was sometimes at odds with the medical community," Jensen said. "But he had his standards. He would not participate in a trend unless it could be demonstrated to be of value to his patient."

Dr. Heilpern loved his work. But he liked the arts and traveling nearly as much. He often took three months off each year to visit Europe, where he had climbed the major peaks.

Although he retired in 1985, his caring didn't stop. He spent every Monday as a volunteer at Marionwood Convalescent Center, said volunteer coordinator Diane Bixler.

"He told me a really neat story about how he decided to become a doctor," she said.

"He was 4 years old and traveling on a train with his mother when all these soldiers wounded in World War I got aboard. Their pain made such an impression that he vowed to be a doctor so he could help people who were suffering."

Other survivors include his children Stephen Sintay, Mariana Sintay and Michael Heilpern, all of Seattle; Leah Snider, Misawa, Japan; Leslie Jane Silva, Truckee, Calif.; and Linus Heilpern, Tokyo, and four grandchildren.

At his request, no services are planned. Remembrances may go to the Renton Historical Society, 235 Mill Ave. S., Renton, WA 98055, or to Kline Galland Home, 7500 Seward Park Ave. S., Seattle, WA 98118.