Remembering C. Frank Webber, M.D.

By Kate McCann
Photos courtesy of Judy Webber Hall and Bryant Boutwell, Dr.P.H.

Although C. Frank Webber, M.D., died at age 51 of a heart-related disease, the physician known for his sense of humor and dedication to the specialty of family medicine packed more life into his years than most usually do in double that time. He lives on in many memories—those of his family, colleagues and patients—and also serves as the namesake of the Academy’s annual Lectureship. Now, more than 20 years after his death, his story has been uncovered once again, out of respect for the man who sincerely believed in family medicine and for everyone else who either learned from him or learns because of him.

When the University of Texas Medical School at Houston decided to open a department of family and community medicine, they recruited from Memorial Hermann where Webber had practiced for 13 years. He made the switch to academia, becoming chair of the department. With UT-Houston, Webber served as assistant dean for community affairs, vice president for health affairs, senior executive associate to the president of the Health Science Center and director of medical education for the Memorial Hermann System before assuming the position of dean of the medical school.

Tragically he only served five months as dean before his death, but colleagues of his, such as George Zenner, M.D., explain that in each of his roles with the school, Webber provided a great deal of leadership for medicine and the school’s students.

“He was the first family physician ever to be the dean of the medical school,” Zenner says. “It was a major thing; it set a precedent for others.”

Another colleague, Frank G. Moody, M.D., who served as chair of surgery at UT-Houston during Webber’s time as dean, calls Webber “a role model for all who aspire to be educators” and describes how he could bridge gaps between dissenting faculty members. “He did things that were very important, sometimes complex, all with a light heart,” Moody says. “He could disarm people with strong opinions and convince them to be led to a consensus. He was a consensus-builder, understanding of others’ feelings and respectful of them.”

Author Bryant Boutwell, Dr. P.H., who co-wrote a history of UT-Houston, “Conversation with a Medical School,” identified Webber and his associate, Harold Pruessner, M.D., as the reasons why the medical school ranked in the top 15 percent of medical schools graduating family physicians.

To honor his contributions to the school, UT-Houston named a community plaza after him and established the C. Frank Webber endowed chair for family medicine “to serve as a continual reminder of the respect [he] continues to hold,” according to Scoop, the school’s news publication. When Carlos Moreno, M.D., was appointed to the position, he called it “a real honor.”

“C. Frank Webber was much more than an outstanding family practitioner and chairman of the department I now lead,” Moreno said in the article. “He was a visionary who recognized the value of research in community medicine as well as the need to develop excellence in teaching programs to yield family practitioners of the highest caliber.”

Outside of his practice and UT-Houston, Webber championed family medicine and worked to strengthen the specialty, according to Moody.

“He played a very important role in medicine in Texas and was involved in the national movement that generalists should take care of the whole family. That has value, continuity of health care, it makes you get to know your patients,” he says.

Throughout his life, Webber set many other milestones. He was the youngest physician to ever serve as president of the Harris County Medical Society and was a charter member of AAFP.

The long list of positions and offices that distinguish Webber as a leader stretches across many medical organizations. Besides his tenure with UT-Houston Medical School and HCMS, he served as vice president of TAFP, president of the Harris County Academy of Family Physicians, president of the Association of Family Practice Directors and vice-chairman of the Texas Medical Association Council on Medical Education, to name a few.

Webber received a bachelor’s degree from Texas A&M University and went on to earn his medical degree from the University of Texas Medical Branch. After an internship and residency at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson, Miss., he was drafted to serve as a flight surgeon for two years with the XVIII Airborne Corps. He completed his service with the military in 1964 and began practicing family medicine in Houston.

“He balanced an unbelievably full and multi-faced life that allowed him to give the best to his family, his patients, his physician colleagues, his students and the medical profession at large,” said Betty Stephenson, M.D., in a President’s Page column of the Harris County Medical Society newsletter.

Even after entering academia, the physician maintained his family medicine practice, which is the role that his patients most often remember.

“His patients don’t think of him as the medical school dean or as a representative to AMA, they remember him as their physician,” Zenner says. “He was the model family doctor and loved what he was doing.”

Besides being remembered as a leader and great physician, Webber is also fondly remembered as a great listener, an avid skier, a photographer, a world-traveler and for being “the best kidder in the world” with a great sense of humor.

“The two big things that stand out about him were that you always felt listened to and he could turn anything into laughter,” says Judy Webber Hall, Webber’s widow.

“We were married fairly young—I was 19—so we kind of grew up together,” Hall continues. “Any sense of humor that I have now I got from him. That’s what carried us through the ups and downs.”

In the end, former HCMS President Stephenson wrote that she wasn’t surprised that it was his heart that failed. “Even though he was only 51 in calendar years,” Stephenson said, “Frank Webber had used his wonderful heart many times over that age to the benefit of our profession and our patients.”