Arthur Huntley, MD

He had clocks large and small, which were most fascinating to me and his friends.

He was always busy, be it helping his son build a harpsichord, repairing a back yard swimming pool, or, after retiring, building a retirement home in Manchester.

Ace Huntley was born in Sunnyvale, reared in Manchester and attended high school in Point Arena. His father, Dr. Arthur Corbett Huntley, was a general practitioner, and Ace as a child accompanied him on a horse and buggy making house calls. Ace became a high school teacher, teaching science and chemistry in Siskiyou County. He switched to medicine when he did not achieve tenure.

Dr. Huntley graduated in 1940 from the UC San Francisco School of Medicine and completed his internship at Sacramento County Hospital. He maintained his staff privileges there as attending physician and also was active in its medical educational programs.

I first met Dr. Huntley in 1957 when I was an internist beginning my career. The Sutter Hospital Board of Trustees decided to develop a program for open-heart surgery, then in its infancy. Dr. Edward Smeloff organized the program, with Dr. Art Huntley assisting on many of the procedures and instrumentations. Dr. Huntley was on a team that spent at least two years at the Sutter Research Foundation dog laboratory perfecting the technique of open-heart surgery; Dr. Huntley, then the first cardiac perfusionist in Sacramento, was responsible for the coronary artery bypass procedure. Needless to say, the team was self-taught, consulting with the cardiopulmonary team at Stanford University under Dr. Norman Shumway. Open-heart surgery became a successful program in Sacramento from those humble beginnings.

More importantly, Art was a caring medical practitioner, assisted by his wife, the office nurse. He was very precise and always concerned with the patient's welfare. He had many friends and loyal patients when he left private practice in 1980. He then worked briefly at the California State University Student Health Center.

Art Huntley is survived by his wife of 70 years, Dorothy, two daughters, Maria McKinney of Seattle and Barbara Pesarento of Manchester, and a son, Arthur Clayton Huntley, MD, a professor at the UC Davis School of Medicine. He has 12 grandchildren, one of which, Katherine E. Grundling, MD, is on the staff at UC Davis, and nine great grand children.

Dr. Arthur Cecil Huntley leaves a warm feeling in the minds and hearts of all of us who have known and worked with him, as patients, colleagues or friends. As with everything in life, time continued to tick on for Dr. Huntley.

-by William Y. Fong, MD