Dr. Konrad W Kircher

KIRCHER, Dr. Konrad, a husband, father, grandfather, and a long-time prominent radiologist in the Dayton area, died February 15, 2010 in Palm Beach, Florida, at the age of 82. Dr. Kircher was born in Lauingen, Germany, in 1927, and immigrated in 1952 to the United States where he finished his medical training at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. After his residency, Dr. Kircher moved to Dayton and worked for 43 years at the St. Elizabeth Medical Center where he served as Chief of Staff for two years, and also held other positions in the local medical community, including President of the Medical Radiologists Group, Montgomery County Medical Society, and Ohio State Radiological Society. A major highlight of Kircher’s career was his sponsoring of a resolution calling for the banning of tobacco use, which was then adopted by the Ohio Medical Association and subsequently the American Medical Association. Dr. Kircher’s family describe him as a “survivor.” At the age of 16, he was forcibly drafted into the German army during the later stages of World War II. In “Hitler’s Unwilling Soldier,” a book he published in Germany in 2001, Kircher described the hardships of the war, and how he deliberately fled the senseless killing on the Russian Front with the aim of getting captured by the advancing US troops. As many veterans like him, Kircher wasted no time in putting the traumatic wartime experience behind and starting a new page by pursuing a career. For him, it meant following in the footsteps of his father who served as the town doctor in Lauingen. And just like many immigrants before him, Kircher was always thankful for his new adopted homeland of the United States, which gave him citizenship and the chance to build a prosperous life for his family in Dayton. After retirement, Kircher split time between his home in Bellbrook and a home in Jupiter, Florida with his wife Susi who was a constant source of support and companionship. He enjoyed seeing his family grow and playing the role of “Opa” to seven grand-daughters. In the last years of his life, Kircher was determined to make the most of every day, despite recurrent heart problems. Up to his last days, when he gradually succumbed to congestive heart failure, Kircher still took pride in defying the odds and keeping in touch with family, as well as bicycling along Florida’s AIA Ocean Boulevard, swimming, and hiking. Dr. Kircher is survived by wife Susi, sons Konrad (an attorney in Maineville, Ohio); Steve (an emergency room doctor in Centerville, Ohio); and Andy (a communications manager in Washington, DC); daughters-in-law Missy, Carrie and Jenny; grand-daughters Kayla, Alexis, Darcy, Lindsey, Kristen, Chandler and Cameron, as well as sister Sissi Stichter of Bad Soden, Germany. A viewing will be held at Routsong Funeral Home’s Kettering Chapel at 2100 East Stroop Road from 5 to 8 pm Friday, February 19. A funeral service will be held at 10 am on Saturday at the funeral home. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Dr. Kircher’s preferred charity, Feed the Children, at www.feedthechildren.org or at Feed the Children, PO Box 36, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, 73107. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.routsong.com.

Funeral Home:
Kettering Routsong Funeral Home
2100 E. Stroop Rd.
Kettering, OH
US 45429