Anne Elizabeth Hendrick Gaston Md

Obituary for Anne Elizabeth Hendrick Gaston MD.

Anne Elizabeth Hendrick Gaston MD died peacefully on November 24,
2023, in Atlanta, Georgia. She was a loving wife of sixty-seven years, and an honorable, dedicated, and talented, physician, who was beloved by her many patients, family, and friends. She was a most caring mother, grandmother, and a new great-grandmother.
Dr. Gaston was 93 years old.

Dr. Anne Gaston was born on November 10, 1930, in Columbus, Georgia, and she attended her local Hurtsboro, Alabama Schools as one of a starting and finishing class of 12 students.
She then received her undergraduate degree from the University of Alabama in only three years (1951) and then her Emory Medical Degree (1955). (Alpha Omega Alpha). At Emory she met and married her classmate husband, J. Harper Gaston MD.

Dr. Anne was one of only two women in her medical school class. Dr. Gaston was a Board-Certified Neonatologist and Board-Certified Pediatrician. In 1961, Drs. Anne and Harper Gaston moved from Atlanta to Piedmont, California, where they joined the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in the KPMG’s first medical office in San Leandro, California.

Their decision to move to California was based primarily upon the fact that the KPMG was one of the only medical groups in the country which would allow both a husband and wife to work at the same time, and to be paid equally for their work.

Dr. Anne Gaston worked for the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group of Northern California for over twenty years, and she recently became the oldest female physician of the Northern California Kaiser Permanente Medical Group.

Dr Anne Gaston took the first US Neonatology Board exams and as a newly certified Neonatologist, helped to establish all of the neonatal nursery units in Northern California’s Permanente Medical Group. She also served as director of the Intensive Care Nursery at Marin General Hospital under a special contract with KPMG.

Dr. Anne was a Professor at the University of San Francisco Medical School starting in 1963. As a neonatologist, Dr. Anne Gaston taught medical students and residents in the Intensive Care Nursery at University of California in San Francisco for 20 years. In 1979, she became professor of pediatrics at UCSF.

Besides saving the lives of so many neonatal babies and many other children’s lives, she was also one of the two neonatal physicians at UCSF who despite many objections, treated and saved the life of an abandoned gorilla baby from the San Francisco Zoo. This gorilla went on to become the world-famous, hand-signing gorilla, Koko.
Koko’s incredible life story gave Dr. Anne great joy.

Dr. Anne was Tough, but also Generous, Thoughtful, Strong-Willed, Intelligent, Creative, Elegant, and she was Deeply Loved. She also joyfully loved surprises, entertaining her friends, and her ever-cultivated collection of orchids, and her travel all over the world, as a tourist and as a physician.

In Atlanta, Dr. Gaston continued her community service, by serving on the Board of Trustees of Emory University (1990-1996) and the Emory Alumni Association Board of Governors, as a founding member (1988-1993) and served on the Medical School Alumni Board (2001-2010) emerita member and in many other capacities for over 50 years, including serving as the first women elected as a School of Medicine Class President.

Dr. Anne Gaston was also awarded the Emory Medal, Emory’s Highest Honor, for her service to Emory and the Community in 1996.

The Drs. Gaston also established the Gaston Service Scholarships for Emory University Medical School students who exemplified community volunteerism and service, where she stated:
“Service in and of itself is the greatest reward that our profession can offer us. It is the heart of medicine.”

Anne Elizabeth Hendrick Gaston MD, is survived by her only child,
Lisa Anne Gaston, her son-in-law Michael Gerard Reff, her two granddaughters and their spouses, Allison Elizabeth Stalla (Timothy Zeid Stalla) and Hayley Harper Swarbrick (Andrew John Swarbrick). And her great-grandson, Benjamin Allen Stalla.

A private service will be held on Saturday, December 2, 2023, where Dr. Anne Gaston will be laid to rest in the Hurtsboro, Alabama, Methodist Church Cemetery.