Douglas Hess Obituary, Death – The members of the WCH family are mourning the loss of Dr. Douglas Sterling Hess, who passed away at the age of 92. Dr. Hess was a general surgeon, the leader of the Medical Staff, and a pioneer in the field of bariatric surgery during his time as a member of WCH’s medical staff from 1966 until 2004.
On January 11, 2023, Douglas S. Hess, M.D., a general surgeon who had worked in Bowling Green, Ohio for the previous four decades, passed away at his home. It had been 92 years since he had been born. He had a great and long career in medicine, one of the highlights of which was serving as the Wood County Coroner for sixteen years. In addition to his lengthy and successful career as a physician, Dr. Hess was also actively involved in the farming operation that he owned and controlled. Even after he had retired from his medical practice in 2004, he continued to spend his weekends working in the fields, which he had always found to be a relaxing and enjoyable activity.
Dr. Hess was born on August 24, 1930, in the house that his grandpa had built on the family farm in North Baltimore, Ohio. His parents were named William R. Hess and Jessie E. Hess. His grandfather had bought the farm. His son and his family now make their home on the farm in the same house that Dr. Hess called home when he was a child.
At the age of eighteen, Dr. Hess tied the knot with Patricia Eloise Sterling, the girl he had a crush on since they were in high school together. They went to North Baltimore High School together and grew up within a two-mile radius of one another in the same neighborhood. They had been married for close to 72 years at the time of her death, and she had been his office assistant for a number of years during the course of her husband’s career as a physician. In March of 2021, Patricia took her own life.