Keith Richard Weeks

April 24, 1944 ~ January 6, 2023

Dr. Keith Weeks, an Iowa farmer's son who devoted his life to bringing life-saving medicine to rural Montanans and raised a loving family, died peacefully in Vancouver, Washington, on Friday, January 6 from natural causes. He was seventy-eight.

The fifth of seven sons, Keith was born in Everett, Washington to Cecil and Mary Elizabeth Weeks. After a decade on an Iowa farm, the family returned to the Pacific Northwest. Keith would go on to enroll and play baseball at the University of Puget Sound in 1962. There, a professor said, "You'd make a good doctor." He never looked back. After graduation, he went to medical school at OHSU in Portland, Oregon.

He met Ellen, a nursing student, at a campus social in 1968. She'd sworn not to marry a redhead or a doctor but was won over by his kindness and sense of humor.

They married in 1969 and trekked to Philadelphia in 1972 for Keith's internship and residency at Presbyterian-University of Pennsylvania. They welcomed their first son, Kevin, shortly before they moved to Los Angeles in 1974, where Keith began a cardiology fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. There he studied cutting-edge cardiovascular medicine. Pursuing the best treatments for his patients would take him to Switzerland (to learn angioplasty), the US Naval Hospital in Maryland (nuclear cardiology), and elsewhere throughout his career. Keith and Ellen moved to Billings, Montana in 1976, and started a medical practice which drew patients from a four-state area. Their second son, Brent, was born in 1977.

Keith's practice flourished because of the quality of care he brought to an under-served area. He pioneered numerous cardiology treatments and techniques in Montana, saving many lives and reclaiming quality of life for many more.

But it was his kindness and dedication that left a deeper impact. He knew the name of everyone in the hospital from the nurses to the janitors. With his mixture of plain but compassionate talk and utter command of the most recent research, he made patients, and their families feel at ease during the most frightening time of their lives. When most cardiologists would only see their heart attack patients the next morning, Keith told hospital staff to call him at any time, because he believed those hours were critical to preventing more damage to the heart. (A belief later research would confirm.)

He was known for jokes, his silly suspenders, and stocking the nurses' stations with squirt guns for impromptu water-gun duels. "Oh, you're Doctor Weeks's kid!" was a loving refrain his children often heard–-along with stories of how Dad had served their families.

In 1985, the family was joined by twin daughters, Christa and Elisa. In 1988, they moved to Whitefish, Montana in the Flathead Valley, where Keith opened his second private practice after a year's sabbatical.

The Weeks family called the Flathead Valley home for the next thirty-five years, living in Whitefish and then Kalispell. Keith loved the natural beauty of the Valley and the people who lived there. Due to health issues, Keith had to close his practice in 1998, but in 2003, he was recruited to practice and teach medical fellows at the University of Nebraska in Omaha. He loved passing on what he knew to a new generation of cardiologists.

In 2010, he retired to his dream home on Flathead Lake. He enjoyed the outdoors with his faithful dog, Freckles, visiting his four children with his wife, traveling to see his brothers, and enjoying his eight grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his parents, Cecil and Mary Elizabeth, and his brothers Al, David, and Roger Weeks. He is survived by his wife Ellen Weeks, brothers Don, Denny, and Steve Weeks, his son Kevin Weeks, son Brent (and Kristi) Weeks, daughter Elisa (and James) Roberts, daughter Christa (and Steven) Rogers, and eight grandchildren.

Keith left his kids and grandkids a legacy of his zest for life: from his joy in joking, to never failing to see some natural wonder on his long nature walks--noting the perfect design of a tree, a star, or a flower. He bequeathed them an appreciation for excellence and hard work, and a love for learning and joyfully debating the hard questions. His loving faithfulness for Ellen and his abiding joy in his children reflected God the Father's love. Each of his children has a deep faith in Jesus Christ, and we trust that he is resting with the Lord, having heard from Jesus, "Well done, good and faithful servant."

Services will be held at:

St. Patrick Catholic Church

1623 NW 19th Ave, Portland, OR 97209

On Friday, January 20, 2023

10:30 am Funeral Mass

Followed by committal at:

Mt. Calvary Catholic Cemetery

333 SW Skyline Blvd, Portland, OR 97221

at 12:30 pm