Funeral Services Set for Dr. John Hester
Posted on Monday, February 24th, 2014
Funeral services for John W. Hester, DO, will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, February 27, 2014, at Craddock Funeral Home, 525 S. Commerce St., Ardmore.
Dr. Hester, a physician in the clinic and hospital died February 22.
Hester, 60, underwent eight hours of emergency surgery in Ardmore after being stricken by illness earlier in the day, said clinic director Connie Barker.
Barker, along with other stunned and saddened colleagues, was at the clinic in Marietta Sunday afternoon notifying the patients Hester was scheduled to see on Monday.
“He was admired and will be greatly missed,” Barker said. “Dr. Hester had not been here long but he had acquired a full patient load and was well-liked.”
Hester joined Mercy Health/Love County last July, filling a void left by the retirement of Dr. Larry D. Powell.
Hester’s death occurs barely two months following the tragic loss of another popular Love County physician, Dr. Vergil D. Smith.
Smith, who had served the community since 1963, died on December 9 after being struck by a vehicle outside his home in Marietta.
Hester is survived by his wife Tammy an RN at the Madill hospital, two sons and two daughters.
Hester’s career as a family physician covered more than 30 years in Oklahoma and elsewhere.
He had practiced at a military base in Alabama, a college health center in Georgia, the Veteran’s Center in Ardmore, family clinics in Pond Creek and Fairview, and the hospital in Seiling.
“I like this profession because I just like people,” Hester said upon starting work in Marietta. His ‘bedside manner’ quickly earned praise from patients.
He said the positive example of a childhood family physician inspired him to go into medicine.
Following graduation from Carl Albert High School in Midwest City in 1970, Hester served in the U.S. Army, including one year in Vietnam.
He attended the United States Air Force Academy for one year. He graduated from Rose State College in 1974, Central State University in 1976, and Oklahoma State College of Osteopathic Medicine in 1980.
He supported himself through college on the G.I. Bill and as a carpenter.
He constructed Japanese gardens, a hobby learned during military service in Okinawa, and he visited academic libraries in England and Europe doing research into ancient civilizations.
Hester was born in 1953 in Bossier Parish, Louisiana.