Barnes, Roger William (1897–1982)

Roger William Barnes, pioneering urologist, was born in Littleton, Colorado, in 1897. He and his family moved to California when he was 11. He received his early education at church schools in the area of St. Helena, California. He married Oca Davis in 1923, and they had six children.¹

Barnes graduated from Lodi Academy, Pacific Union College, and from the Loma Linda College of Medical Evangelists (CME) in the class of 1922. He completed an internship and residency in urology at the Los Angeles County Hospital in 1925. In the same year accepted an appointment to the faculty of CME/LLU, which he would retain for the remainder of his life.

During the decades that followed, Dr. Barnes became known as “Mr. Urology” and “the Iron Man of Urology.” He enhanced and popularized the transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) on the Los Angeles campus of the CME. The procedure corrects the obstructions in the flow of urine because of the enlargement of the prostate gland and has had a major impact on patient care over many years.² Dr. Barnes performed the procedure himself more than 18,000 times, and was the first to perform the operation in the People’s Republic of China. He also helped to perfect the transurethral prostatectomy and became an international authority on endoscopy.

Dr. Barnes and his wife, Oca, helped establish and organize teaching programs in urology in many parts of the world, including the Middle East, the Far East, Australia, South America, and Southern Asia.³ Their itinerary included missionary tours to the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, where Dr. Barnes developed the Department of Urology and a corresponding residency program. He spent a year there teaching how to perform the transurethral resection of the prostate. He also served on the mercy hospital ship S.S. Hope, and became a member of the Project Hope medical board.

Author or coauthor of 14 textbooks and more than 150 scientific articles, Barnes received numerous forms of recognition for his expertise and achievements. In 1979, for example, he received the Ramon Guiteras Award (named after the founder of the American Urological Association), the highest award granted by the association and the highest award for any urologist worldwide. “In all this,” according to his colleague, Walter E. Macpherson, M.D., “he remained a humble, contrite Christian, a devoted husband and father, and a respected teacher.”⁴

In a 1979 Adventist Review article Dr. Barnes commented on the spiritual dimension of health care, illustrated by a striking experience he had with a patient:

When a person has had a heart attack, the extra stress caused by anxiety and fear as to the possible outcome can cause the patient to die. Therefore, the composure that can come from a patient’s placing his faith in the Great Physician may be the determining factor in his recovery. When the patient knows that the physician at his bedside is in contact with God, his confidence in both is strengthened, his fear is changed to hope, and his anxiety gives way to peace.⁵

Dr. Barnes remained active in his profession until the brief illness that led to his death in 1982 at age 84. During his final illness, his only concern was for others including the nurses taking care of him, reported Dr. Henry Hadley, his son-in-law and colleague. The Roger W. Barnes endowed Medical Research Fund was established in his honor to support clinical and basic science research.

Sources

Barnes, Roger W. “Healing the Whole Person.” ARH, July 26, 1979.

Barnes, Roger William and Oca Davis. Seventh-day Adventist Biography File, Heritage Research Center, Loma Linda University.

Hinshaw, David. Oral History, July 24, 1996. Department of Archives and Special Collections, Heritage Research Center, Loma Linda University.

“Roger W. Barnes obituary.” ARH, March 25, 1982.

“Transitions, In Memoriam.” Alumni Journal, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, April–June 1982.

Notes

1. Unless otherwise attributed, general biographical information is drawn from the Roger William and Oca Davis Barnes Seventh-day Adventist Biography File, Heritage Research Center, Loma Linda University.↩

2. David Hinshaw, oral history transcript, July 24, 1996, 45, 46, Department of Archives and Special Collections, Heritage Research Center, Loma Linda University.↩

3. “Roger W. Barnes obituary,” ARH, March 25, 1982, 23.↩

4. “Transitions, In Memoriam,” Alumni Journal, Loma Linda University School of Medicine, April–June 1982, 24–29.↩

5. Roger W. Barnes, “Healing the Whole Person,” ARH, July 26, 1979, 4.↩