A short time after his teenage son, David, died in 1975, Dr. William Gamble boarded a plane to Honduras for a faith-based medical missionary trip.
For Gamble, a surgeon, the missionary experience was necessary for healing.
The two-week trip would become an everlasting passion and inspire several trips to other countries, including a return trip to Honduras and two three-month stints in Kenya.
"He felt that he was very fortunate in life and wanted to use his skills in training to help people ... to give back, really," said his daughter Anne Pereira.
Gamble, a surgeon who practiced in St. Louis Park, taught at the University of Minnesota Medical School and spent many summers abroad doing faith-based medical work, died Sept. 6 at his Edina home. He was 82.
Born in Batavia, N.Y., he earned his undergraduate degree from Amherst College and his medical degree from the University of Rochester at age 25. After his graduation, he and his family moved to Cleveland in 1960 to begin his surgical residency, which was interrupted by a two-year stint with the Air Force in California.
Gamble entered the service as an officer and was quickly given responsibility to make clinical decisions. He would say his time with the Air Force is where his career took off, recalled his son, Tom. "That short time increased his confidence and clinical skills," Tom said.
After finishing his residency in Cleveland, Gamble took a job at the new St. Louis Park Medical Center (now Park Nicollet Medical Center) in Minnesota. Neither he nor his wife, Katherine, called Cassie, had Midwestern roots, but they settled in comfortably in Edina.