Dr. Robert Sceery, Pediatrician And Cohasset 'Legend', 84

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Doctor Sceery, who was the Cohasset school physician for more than 40
years, died of congestive heart failure February 18, 2005, at the age
of 84.

For more than 50 years, Dr. Robert T. Sceery was a pediatrician who saw
patients in his home and small office in Cohasset, Massachusetts.

"It really was a scene out of Norman Rockwell," said his daughter Katie
Trumper of Edmonds, Wash.

"He was a legend in town," said his longtime nurse, Jean Thompson of
Cohasset.

Many people remember Dr. Sceery as a quiet man with a wooden carousel
horse in his waiting room who treated countless cuts and scratches, as
well as more serious ailments. Few knew that before he began his
medical career he navigated a landing craft into Utah Beach under heavy
enemy fire during the D-day invasion of France.

"It was not something he spoke about," his son-in-law Dr. Mark Rockoff,
of Hingham, Massachusetts, said. "He was a very quiet man and a great
listener. That's what made him a good doctor."

The son of an insurance executive, Dr. Sceery was born in West
Hartford, Connecticut. He graduated from Harvard College in 1942.

He enlisted in the Navy the day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

After training as a navigator he piloted a landing ship tank across the
Atlantic to Normandy Beach on June 6, 1944.

"He survived because he ran the landing ship aground, too close to the
cliffs for the German gunners to fire down on," Rockoff said.

When high tide came, he and his crewmates filled the ship with Allied
dead and wounded, and returned to England before returning to Normandy
with more equipment.

Dr. Sceery also participated in the assaults on southern France and
Japan.

After his return from the war, Dr. Sceery graduated from Yale Medical
School before beginning his practice in Cohasset.

"He moved to a small town and took care of the community. It's a way of
life that has totally passed by," Rockoff said.

Most doctors are in group practices now, a fact that Dr. Sceery
acknowledged in the 25th anniversary report of his graduating class at
Harvard.

"I have seen myself happily ensconced in a losing battle trying to
forestall that inevitable day when the individual medical practitioner
will be gone from the medical scene," he wrote.

Dr. Sceery was also a clinical instructor in pediatrics at
Massachusetts General Hospital, where he continued to make weekly
rounds until recently.

"He was a very compassionate person who was very good with children and
adults, too," Thompson said. "He continued to see many patients long
after they were too old for pediatric care."

And after every visit to Dr. Sceery's office there was always a treat.

Young patients, their brothers, sisters, and any other child who
accompanied them were allowed to select a lollipop from a pewter
container he kept on his desk.

"He must have passed out millions of them," his daughter said.

In addition to his daughter Katie, he leaves his wife, Phoebe
(Malmfeldt); four other daughters, Beth Rockoff of Hingham, Lucy Clode
of Shropshire, England, Amy Crane of Woodbridge, Connecticut, and Mara
Morris of Winnetka, Illinois; a son, Michael of Cohasset; a brother,
Richard of East Greenwich, Connecticut; and 17 grandchildren.

Boston Globe