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Funeral Mass for Dr. Robert F. Dyer, Jr., M.D., Sc.D.

Sunday, July 15, 2012 – Bethesda, MD – Retired Lieutenant Colonel Robert Francis Dyer, Jr., M.D., Sc.D., 85, a retired physician, former educator, husband, father, grandparent, and U.S. Army & Army Reserves veteran from Bethesda, MD, passed away from respiratory and kidney failure.

 

Dr. Dyer is survived by his wife of 42 years, Doris Swain Dyer, RN, a Registered Nurse, of Bethesda, MD; four children: the eldest, Robert Francis Dyer, III, a musician/recording artist and blogger (@BethesdaRow), of Bethesda, MD, William Edward Dyer, a Marketing Research Manager (USA Today/Gannett), of Bethesda, MD, Anne Dyer Bott, RN, a Registered Nurse, of Annandale, VA, and Scott Robertson Dyer, a Business Manager (J.P. Morgan Private Bank) and an elected member of the Montgomery Village Foundation’s Board of Directors and the East Village Homes Corporation’s Board of Directors, of Montgomery Village, MD; a son-in-law: George Bott, Associate AIA, LEED AP, licensed Architect (Anthony Wilder Design/Build), of Annandale, VA; a daughter-in-law, Joyce Kraus Dyer, a licensed Commercial Interior Designer, as well as Vice President and an elected member of the East Village Homes Corporation’s Board of Directors of Montgomery Village, MD; and a grandson, Joseph Edward Dyer, of Montgomery Village, MD.

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Dr. Dyer, a seventh generation Washingtonian, dedicated his life to serving others. After serving in our armed forces during World War II (Pacific Theater) and Korea, and honored with numerous medals and foreign decorations, Dr. Dyer returned to the United States to study medicine and became licensed to practice medicine in Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia. With over forty years of experience as a Physician in private practice offering Primary Care, specializing in Cardiology and Internal Medicine, Dr. Dyer was an internationally respected physician.

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Dr. Robert F. Dyer, Jr.’s public service over the decades has included President John F. Kennedy’s appointment as Secretary, Board of Police and Fire Surgeons, and Director/Chief of Occupational Medicine, Police and Firemen’s Clinics; serving as White House consultant on Internal Medicine; serving on the D.C. Mayor’s Emergency Council; serving as Occupational Medicine Representative on the Interspecialty Board to the Congressional House of Delegates;

serving as Deputy Medical Director, Washington National Airport; serving as Federal Aviation Medical Examiner; serving as Surgeon General and Medical Director, U.S. Park Police; serving as Medical Director, Secret Service Uniformed Divisions; serving as President and Dean, Washington College of Occupational Medicine; serving as Deputy Medical Director, Capitol Airlines; serving as Chief of Medicine and Commandant of Medical Training, U.S. Army Hospitals; serving as a Clinical Professor of Medicine, George Washington University’s School of Medicine & Health Sciences; serving as Chief of Internal Medicine and Chief of Medical Education, Sibley Memorial Hospital; serving as President, Washington Medical & Surgical Society; President, Hippocrates-Galen Medical Society; serving as Senior Internal Medicine Member, Board of Review, D.C. Department of Labor’s Compensation Medicine Board; serving as Special Advisor to the State Superintendent of Health; serving as Chairman, US Conference on Occupational Health; serving as Director of Occupational Medicine, Herndon Medical Center; serving as Assistant to the President, Aerospace Medical Association; serving as Chief of

Occupational Medicine, 115th Army Hospital, Fort Lewes Delaware; serving as Chief of Medicine and Chief of Staff, 115th Army Hospital, Fort Indiantown Gap Pennsylvania; serving as Medical Consultant to the D.C. City Council on the Occupational Injury/Illness Compensation Bill; serving as President of Occupational Medicine and Director of Classification for Occupational Medicine Specialists, Medical Society of D.C.; serving as President of Phi Chi

Medical Society; and serving as the only 3-term Governor, D.C. Chapter – Colonial Wars National Society. Also notably, Dr. Robert F. Dyer, Jr. has published 36 medical/scientific papers and one scientific book, was awarded the Chair in Medicine from Sibley Memorial Hospital, was Knighted by the Royal House of Borbón y Borbón (Spain) in 1975 for medical achievements, as well as recognized just before retiring on the “Best Primary Physicians in

Maryland” list for 2006. In 2006, at age 80, Dr. Dyer once again answered the call to public service as a candidate for Maryland State Senator in District 16, joining his two sons and daughter-in-law on the ballot in Montgomery County in an unprecedented run for office by a family in Montgomery County (Robert F. Dyer, III, was a candidate for the Maryland House of Delegates – District 16 and for election to a District 16 seat on the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee; Scott R. Dyer was a candidate for the Montgomery County Council – District 2 and for re-election to a District 39 seat on the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee; Joyce Kraus Dyer was a candidate for election to a District 39 seat on the Montgomery County Republican Central Committee).

 

Other notable achievements included his research on Polyvinyl Chloride Toxicity in Fires and Hydrogen Chloride Toxicity in Fire Fighters, published in January 1976 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA); in addition to this research aiding the welfare of firefighters and other first responders, this research also utilized by the U.S. Navy and British Navy for solutions to the design of naval vessels, which led to an honorary post-military rank of  Brigadier General, though his earlier official Army discharge was as a Lieutenant Colonel. Dr. Dyer also published research on the effects of tear gas.

 

Dr. Dyer was the grandson of a notable local businessman and resident of Georgetown in Washington, DC, Joseph Edwin Dyer, of J.E. Dyer & Co. (DYCO, established in 1878), and wife, Florence Matilda Robertson Dyer, a DC public school teacher. Dr. Dyer was the son of Washington, DC resident, Robert F. Dyer, Sr., and his wife Sallie Dyer, and was the eldest of four children: Richard Dyer, Sr., JD (pre-deceased) (a U.S. Navy veteran), Nancy Dyer (pre-deceased), and David Dyer (pre-deceased) (a Vietnam veteran of the U.S. Navy, a Prisoner of War during Vietnam, and later buried with honors at Arlington National Cemetery). Dr. Dyer’s aunt, Dr. Helen Marie Dyer, (pre-deceased at the age of 103), was a pioneer in Cancer research.

 

Funeral arrangements are as follows:

 

FUNERAL HOME VISITATION

Friday, July 20, 2012 @ 5:00pm-8:00pm

Joseph Gawler's Sons Inc.

5130 Wisconsin Avenue NW Washington, DC 20016

202-966-6400

http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Robert...

 

FUNERAL MASS

Saturday, July 21, 2012 @ 12:00PM

Church of the Little Flower

5607 Massachusetts Avenue

Bethesda, MD 20816

(301) 320-4538

http:// www.lfparish.org

 

BURIAL

Thursday, July 26, 2012 @ 2:00PM

Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery

11301 Crain Hwy, Cheltenham,MD 20623

(301) 372-6398

http://www.mdva.state.md.us/cemeteries/cheltenham.html

 

 

Dr. Dyer cherished his ties with Johns Hopkins, so in lieu of flowers, Dr. Dyer asked that expressions of love and respect be in the form of donations to the "Dr. J. Weingart Research Fund." Please make the check payable to John Hopkins Medicine, with a note on the check: "Dr. J. Weingart Research Fund." Please enclose a note stating: "Donation is in memory for Dr. Robert F. Dyer, Jr." Mail to: Johns Hopkins Medicine, Department of Neurosurgery, #434, 100 N Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21201-3814. All donations are fully tax deductible and will be acknowledged.

 

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For questions or additional information, please contact:

 

- Funeral Arrangements through Joseph Gawler's Sons, Inc.

Web site: http://www.josephgawlers.com

Phone: 202-966-6400

Address: 5130 Wisconsin Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016

 

- To contact Dr. Dyer’s family: Scott R. Dyer

Web site: http://www.ScottDyer.com

E-mail address: Scott@ScottDyer.com

Phone: 301-928-9643

Address: 8535 Fountain Valley Drive, Montgomery Village, MD 20886

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