Dr. John Upton Bascom was a prominent Eugene physician. However, his international reputation as a surgeon was often overshadowed by his bicycle-riding wife, who was Eugene's mayor, Ruth Ellen Fenton Bascom.
John Bascom was the son of Kellogg Finley Bascom and Lillian Marie Paulson Bascom.
When he was in the sixth grade, John Bascom moved with his family to Manhattan, Kansas where he met his future wife, Ruth Fenton. After graduating from Manhattan High School, John joined the Merchant Marines. After his service, he then graduated from Kansas State University, as did Ruth Fenton. John and Ruth married in 1950 and moved to Chicago where John attended medical school. John Bascom attended the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. They then moved to Minneapolis for six years, during which John Bascom completed his surgical residency. In 1960, after residency in Minneapolis, John and Ruth moved with their brood to their "Shangri-La": Eugene, Oregon.
Dr. Bascom's surgical innovation focused on the problem of Pilonidal disease an abscess on the buttocks that was a particular problem during World War II. He developed a new way to treat the disease and doggedly spread the word through personal contacts, professional articles, speaking engagements, one-on one training of interested surgeons, and a co-developed patient -centered blog. He had traveled to other countries and met with surgeons who had adopted his methods for treating Pilonidal disease. In the medical world, John Bascom was known as a surgical innovator. He traveled to places as far away as England and Switzerland to share his technique with others in the medical field.
Life was an adventure for John Bascom. An adventure meant being faced with a problem and figuring out a solution. If afterward, there was a good story to tell, that was an added bonus. As often as not, the stories demonstrated one of his favorite sayings (thanks to Simon Bolivar): "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience? Well, that comes from bad judgment".
John Bascom enjoyed spending time on his tree farm near Cottage Grove. Besides his medical work, Dr. Bascom was a community volunteer. The Bascoms liked to cut oak firewood, later delivering it to friends and others in need. For years, he spent every Monday morning on the slopes of Mt. Pisgah with a park clean-up work party. Even as his ability to talk was failing and single words took several long seconds of patience, every week he took his same stiff leather work gloves, his time-dulled clippers, and he set to work on the thorny blackberries rising in the grass.
Like his wife, Dr. Bascom was an avid bicyclist. He rode an old three-speed bicycle to work every day for 50 years. Dr. Bascom was riding his bike as recently as the summer before his death when he suffered a fall and broke his hip. Apparently the hip fracture caused his previously mild dementia to progress rapidly. Dr. Bascom died at age 87 in a Springfield memory care facility.
The Bascoms were the parents of six children and the grandparents of 14. All six of their children have careers in the medical profession. Four are doctors, one is a nurse, and one is a cancer pharmacist. John was survived by his six children and fourteen grandchildren. His wife, Ruth, passed away in 2010.
John Bascom was the son of Kellogg Finley Bascom and Lillian Marie Paulson Bascom.
When he was in the sixth grade, John Bascom moved with his family to Manhattan, Kansas where he met his future wife, Ruth Fenton. After graduating from Manhattan High School, John joined the Merchant Marines. After his service, he then graduated from Kansas State University, as did Ruth Fenton. John and Ruth married in 1950 and moved to Chicago where John attended medical school. John Bascom attended the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. They then moved to Minneapolis for six years, during which John Bascom completed his surgical residency. In 1960, after residency in Minneapolis, John and Ruth moved with their brood to their "Shangri-La": Eugene, Oregon.
Dr. Bascom's surgical innovation focused on the problem of Pilonidal disease an abscess on the buttocks that was a particular problem during World War II. He developed a new way to treat the disease and doggedly spread the word through personal contacts, professional articles, speaking engagements, one-on one training of interested surgeons, and a co-developed patient -centered blog. He had traveled to other countries and met with surgeons who had adopted his methods for treating Pilonidal disease. In the medical world, John Bascom was known as a surgical innovator. He traveled to places as far away as England and Switzerland to share his technique with others in the medical field.
Life was an adventure for John Bascom. An adventure meant being faced with a problem and figuring out a solution. If afterward, there was a good story to tell, that was an added bonus. As often as not, the stories demonstrated one of his favorite sayings (thanks to Simon Bolivar): "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience? Well, that comes from bad judgment".
John Bascom enjoyed spending time on his tree farm near Cottage Grove. Besides his medical work, Dr. Bascom was a community volunteer. The Bascoms liked to cut oak firewood, later delivering it to friends and others in need. For years, he spent every Monday morning on the slopes of Mt. Pisgah with a park clean-up work party. Even as his ability to talk was failing and single words took several long seconds of patience, every week he took his same stiff leather work gloves, his time-dulled clippers, and he set to work on the thorny blackberries rising in the grass.
Like his wife, Dr. Bascom was an avid bicyclist. He rode an old three-speed bicycle to work every day for 50 years. Dr. Bascom was riding his bike as recently as the summer before his death when he suffered a fall and broke his hip. Apparently the hip fracture caused his previously mild dementia to progress rapidly. Dr. Bascom died at age 87 in a Springfield memory care facility.
The Bascoms were the parents of six children and the grandparents of 14. All six of their children have careers in the medical profession. Four are doctors, one is a nurse, and one is a cancer pharmacist. John was survived by his six children and fourteen grandchildren. His wife, Ruth, passed away in 2010.
Dr. John Upton Bascom was a prominent Eugene physician. However, his international reputation as a surgeon was often overshadowed by his bicycle-riding wife, who was Eugene's mayor, Ruth Ellen Fenton Bascom.
John Bascom was the son of Kellogg Finley Bascom and Lillian Marie Paulson Bascom.
When he was in the sixth grade, John Bascom moved with his family to Manhattan, Kansas where he met his future wife, Ruth Fenton. After graduating from Manhattan High School, John joined the Merchant Marines. After his service, he then graduated from Kansas State University, as did Ruth Fenton. John and Ruth married in 1950 and moved to Chicago where John attended medical school. John Bascom attended the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. They then moved to Minneapolis for six years, during which John Bascom completed his surgical residency. In 1960, after residency in Minneapolis, John and Ruth moved with their brood to their "Shangri-La": Eugene, Oregon.
Dr. Bascom's surgical innovation focused on the problem of Pilonidal disease an abscess on the buttocks that was a particular problem during World War II. He developed a new way to treat the disease and doggedly spread the word through personal contacts, professional articles, speaking engagements, one-on one training of interested surgeons, and a co-developed patient -centered blog. He had traveled to other countries and met with surgeons who had adopted his methods for treating Pilonidal disease. In the medical world, John Bascom was known as a surgical innovator. He traveled to places as far away as England and Switzerland to share his technique with others in the medical field.
Life was an adventure for John Bascom. An adventure meant being faced with a problem and figuring out a solution. If afterward, there was a good story to tell, that was an added bonus. As often as not, the stories demonstrated one of his favorite sayings (thanks to Simon Bolivar): "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience? Well, that comes from bad judgment".
John Bascom enjoyed spending time on his tree farm near Cottage Grove. Besides his medical work, Dr. Bascom was a community volunteer. The Bascoms liked to cut oak firewood, later delivering it to friends and others in need. For years, he spent every Monday morning on the slopes of Mt. Pisgah with a park clean-up work party. Even as his ability to talk was failing and single words took several long seconds of patience, every week he took his same stiff leather work gloves, his time-dulled clippers, and he set to work on the thorny blackberries rising in the grass.
Like his wife, Dr. Bascom was an avid bicyclist. He rode an old three-speed bicycle to work every day for 50 years. Dr. Bascom was riding his bike as recently as the summer before his death when he suffered a fall and broke his hip. Apparently the hip fracture caused his previously mild dementia to progress rapidly. Dr. Bascom died at age 87 in a Springfield memory care facility.
The Bascoms were the parents of six children and the grandparents of 14. All six of their children have careers in the medical profession. Four are doctors, one is a nurse, and one is a cancer pharmacist. John was survived by his six children and fourteen grandchildren. His wife, Ruth, passed away in 2010.
John Bascom was the son of Kellogg Finley Bascom and Lillian Marie Paulson Bascom.
When he was in the sixth grade, John Bascom moved with his family to Manhattan, Kansas where he met his future wife, Ruth Fenton. After graduating from Manhattan High School, John joined the Merchant Marines. After his service, he then graduated from Kansas State University, as did Ruth Fenton. John and Ruth married in 1950 and moved to Chicago where John attended medical school. John Bascom attended the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University. They then moved to Minneapolis for six years, during which John Bascom completed his surgical residency. In 1960, after residency in Minneapolis, John and Ruth moved with their brood to their "Shangri-La": Eugene, Oregon.
Dr. Bascom's surgical innovation focused on the problem of Pilonidal disease an abscess on the buttocks that was a particular problem during World War II. He developed a new way to treat the disease and doggedly spread the word through personal contacts, professional articles, speaking engagements, one-on one training of interested surgeons, and a co-developed patient -centered blog. He had traveled to other countries and met with surgeons who had adopted his methods for treating Pilonidal disease. In the medical world, John Bascom was known as a surgical innovator. He traveled to places as far away as England and Switzerland to share his technique with others in the medical field.
Life was an adventure for John Bascom. An adventure meant being faced with a problem and figuring out a solution. If afterward, there was a good story to tell, that was an added bonus. As often as not, the stories demonstrated one of his favorite sayings (thanks to Simon Bolivar): "Good judgment comes from experience, and experience? Well, that comes from bad judgment".
John Bascom enjoyed spending time on his tree farm near Cottage Grove. Besides his medical work, Dr. Bascom was a community volunteer. The Bascoms liked to cut oak firewood, later delivering it to friends and others in need. For years, he spent every Monday morning on the slopes of Mt. Pisgah with a park clean-up work party. Even as his ability to talk was failing and single words took several long seconds of patience, every week he took his same stiff leather work gloves, his time-dulled clippers, and he set to work on the thorny blackberries rising in the grass.
Like his wife, Dr. Bascom was an avid bicyclist. He rode an old three-speed bicycle to work every day for 50 years. Dr. Bascom was riding his bike as recently as the summer before his death when he suffered a fall and broke his hip. Apparently the hip fracture caused his previously mild dementia to progress rapidly. Dr. Bascom died at age 87 in a Springfield memory care facility.
The Bascoms were the parents of six children and the grandparents of 14. All six of their children have careers in the medical profession. Four are doctors, one is a nurse, and one is a cancer pharmacist. John was survived by his six children and fourteen grandchildren. His wife, Ruth, passed away in 2010.
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Surgeon, Innovator & Tree Farmer, Married June 14, 1959, Manhattan, Kansas
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