William R. Kilgore, Md

William Ransom Kilgore, Jr., M.D. died of lung cancer on April 19, 2014 in Santa Fe. He was an only child, born on September 26, 1934 in Idabel, Oklahoma to William R. Kilgore, Sr. and Emma Gail Miller Kilgore. Dr. Kilgore graduated from the University of Oklahoma and the University of Oklahoma School of Medicine. He did his internship at Parkland Hospital in Dallas and residency in Oklahoma City before coming to Taos, NM in 1964 to be the USPHS doctor at Taos Pueblo. He volunteered with American Surgeons in Vietnam and returned to his private general medical practice in Taos.
Around 1968 Dr. Kilgore and Dr. Al Rosen started a free clinic, La Clinica, in Ranchos de Taos, which operated for over 30 years. It has been said that Dr. Kilgore provided more free medical care in Taos over the past 50 years than anyone in Northern New Mexico. Dr. Kilgore was honored as the New Mexico Physician of the Year in 2007. He was a natural diagnostician and teacher and was a Preceptor for hundreds of medical students. Dr. Kilgore loved books and probably gave at least one to everyone he met. The day before he died he happily looked around and bought books at Garcia St. Books after eating a frito pie from Kaunes. Dr. Kilgores parents and beloved wife, Mary, predeceased him. He is survived by his daughter, Mary Karen Kilgore, a lawyer in Santa Fe, and her daughter, Katherine Merriott Kilgore, who is a medical student at UNM. Dr. Kilgores granddaughter, Katherine, plans to carry on his tradition of service to patients in New Mexico. He is also survived by his son, William Ransom Kilgore, III, M.D., a gastroenterologist in Wichita, Kansas, Ransoms wife, Mary Jane, and their four children, Evan, Christian, Mary Chesley and Kendall.

Visitation was held on April 24, 2014 at Rivera Chapel. Funeral Service was held on April 25, 2014 at the First Presbyterian Church with interment following at the Sierra Vista Cemetery.