Dr. Edelbert 'Bert' Kuebeck, 1950-2012: B.G. physician a city fixture for 30 years
5/11/2012BOWLING GREEN -- Dr. Edelbert "Bert" Kuebeck, a family physician with a Bowling Green practice for nearly 30 years, died Thursday in Wood County Hospital. He was 61.
He learned in January that he had pancreatic cancer.
Dr. Kuebeck practiced medicine from the same West Woos- ter Street location since July, 1982, when he arrived in Bowling Green to join the practice of the late Dr. Donald Gamble. He'd just completed at residency at Toledo Hospital's W.W. Knight Family Medicine Center.
"He loved working with everyone, all ages, taking care of everyone in a family," his son Peter said. "He met so many wonderful people whom he became friends with. He carried on these rich relationships with patients that continued for decades. He treated generations of the same family."
He was easily recognized by his signature moustache and was known for his laugh and sparkling intelligence.
"He loved to joke and make puns … " his son said. "He was the kind of person you immediately got along with very, very well."
He was born Aug. 11, 1950, in West Germany to Josepha and Robert Kuebeck. He was 6 when he and his family came to the United States, settling in Wauseon.
He initially aspired to the Roman Catholic priesthood and was a graduate of the former Holy Spirit Seminary in Toledo. He received a bachelor's degree in psychology from St. Meinrad College in Indiana. He worked in a factory for about two years afterward.
"It came to him that medicine was his true path," his son said. He took science courses for two years at the University of Cincinnati and was admitted to medical school at Ohio State University. He was a 1979 graduate.
He liked outdoor pursuits -- from fly fishing to snow-shoeing. When he and son Peter canoed the Maumee River, they packed a lunch and stopped to eat on an island or a rock.
"He found that God spoke to him in nature," his son said.
He was a cook too, and his specialty was breakfast -- scrambled-egg dishes in which egg was but one ingredient of many -- and homemade granola hand-mixed in a cauldron-sized ceramic bowl. He even thought of a marketing slogan: "Bert's Best Batch: Granola From the Heart of the Black Swamp."
"You could get your whole day's calories in one bowl of the stuff," his son said.
He was a member of local and state medical groups. He was a longtime trustee of Wood County Hospital and had been board chairman.
Dr. Kuebeck was the son-in-law of former U.S. Rep. Delbert Latta (R., Bowling Green). Dr. Kuebeck and Rose Ellen Latta married June 14, 1980.
Surviving are his wife, Rose Ellen, sons, Peter, David, and Andrew, and his mother, Josepha.
Visitation is to be today from 2 to 4 p.m. and from 6 to 8 p.m. in the Dunn Funeral Home, Bowling Green. Services are to be Saturday at 10 a.m. at Blessed John XXIII Parish, Perrysburg.
The family suggests tributes to the Wintergarden-St. John's Nature Preserve, Bowling Green, or Blessed John XXIII Parish, of which he was a charter member.
Contact Mark Zaborney at: mzaborney@theblade.com or 419-724-6182.