1925
Dr. Robert
2021
Dr. Robert Limbaugh Simpson
January 25, 1925 — June 26, 2021
On June 26, 2021, Dr. Robert Limbaugh Simpson, devoted husband, and father of four children, passed away after a fulfilling life of 96 years. He was born on January 25, 1925 in Rutherfordton, NC to Oscar and Gladys (Yawn) Simpson and married Nadine Callahan in Quincy, IL on August 28, 1954. In his last days, Dr. Simpson recognized his own prognosis, and advised his cardiologist, “You can’t fix this hundred-year-old body”.
Drafted into the Army during World War II, before graduating from high school, he carried schoolbooks across the South Pacific to complete his diploma. While stationed in the Philippines, the desperate need of the locals for medical care became his inspiration to study medicine and dedicate his life to those most vulnerable.
He received a B.S. at Emory & Henry College in Virginia, a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis, TN and completed post-graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He finished his surgical residency in Bluffton, IN and studied at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Lisbon, Portugal before serving as a medical missionary in Liberia and Mozambique, Africa for almost twenty years.
Dr. Simpson lived a life of Christian faith and unwavering compassion as a doctor and surgeon in Mozambique where he was the Director of Chicuque Rural Hospital, the nursing school, and Teles Leprosarium for the United Methodist Church Board of Global Ministries. With an anesthetist and nurses from Sweden and the United States, he performed over twenty surgeries each day. Chicuque Hospital quickly earned the reputation as the premier health provider in the country. To support a neighboring missionary hospital, he made regular trips to Cambine. He was affectionately known as “Dr. Bob” by the missionary children whose ailments he tended as they grew up in Mozambique.
Upon retirement from mission work, he practiced surgery in Paris, IL for three years and Oberlin, KS for thirteen years. In 1999, he and Nadine settled in Uplands Village in Pleasant Hill, TN where they were instrumental in adopting the Eden Alternative® into the development and design of Wharton Nursing Home, an innovative memory and long-term care facility where residents live as a family.
He is survived by four children, Ken Simpson (Sue), Carolyn Simpson Lang (Stew), Paul Simpson (Mary), and Peter Simpson (Lori). He also leaves five grandchildren, Sara Eades (Ed), Robby Lang (Becca), Scott Simpson, Michael Simpson, Blake Simpson, and three great- grandchildren, Archer Eades, Geneva Eades, and Nadine Lang.
A memorial service will be held for family and friends at Pleasant Hill Community Church in Pleasant Hill, TN on Saturday, July 31, 2021 at 10:30 AM.
Dr. Simpson's wish was cremation and interment of ashes with Nadine, his sweetheart and loving companion of 66 years, who passed on June 15, 2020. In lieu of flowers, he requested donations to support the continuation of mission work at Chicuque Rural Hospital. https://umcmission.org/advance-project/chicuque-rural-hospital/.
Drafted into the Army during World War II, before graduating from high school, he carried schoolbooks across the South Pacific to complete his diploma. While stationed in the Philippines, the desperate need of the locals for medical care became his inspiration to study medicine and dedicate his life to those most vulnerable.
He received a B.S. at Emory & Henry College in Virginia, a Doctor of Medicine from the University of Tennessee College of Medicine in Memphis, TN and completed post-graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. He finished his surgical residency in Bluffton, IN and studied at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Lisbon, Portugal before serving as a medical missionary in Liberia and Mozambique, Africa for almost twenty years.
Dr. Simpson lived a life of Christian faith and unwavering compassion as a doctor and surgeon in Mozambique where he was the Director of Chicuque Rural Hospital, the nursing school, and Teles Leprosarium for the United Methodist Church Board of Global Ministries. With an anesthetist and nurses from Sweden and the United States, he performed over twenty surgeries each day. Chicuque Hospital quickly earned the reputation as the premier health provider in the country. To support a neighboring missionary hospital, he made regular trips to Cambine. He was affectionately known as “Dr. Bob” by the missionary children whose ailments he tended as they grew up in Mozambique.
Upon retirement from mission work, he practiced surgery in Paris, IL for three years and Oberlin, KS for thirteen years. In 1999, he and Nadine settled in Uplands Village in Pleasant Hill, TN where they were instrumental in adopting the Eden Alternative® into the development and design of Wharton Nursing Home, an innovative memory and long-term care facility where residents live as a family.
He is survived by four children, Ken Simpson (Sue), Carolyn Simpson Lang (Stew), Paul Simpson (Mary), and Peter Simpson (Lori). He also leaves five grandchildren, Sara Eades (Ed), Robby Lang (Becca), Scott Simpson, Michael Simpson, Blake Simpson, and three great- grandchildren, Archer Eades, Geneva Eades, and Nadine Lang.
A memorial service will be held for family and friends at Pleasant Hill Community Church in Pleasant Hill, TN on Saturday, July 31, 2021 at 10:30 AM.
Dr. Simpson's wish was cremation and interment of ashes with Nadine, his sweetheart and loving companion of 66 years, who passed on June 15, 2020. In lieu of flowers, he requested donations to support the continuation of mission work at Chicuque Rural Hospital. https://umcmission.org/advance-project/chicuque-rural-hospital/.
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