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 Major Gen. Garth Bryant Dettinger
March 22, 2005
Retired Air Force Major Gen. Garth Bryant Dettinger, 83, of 9120 Belvoir Woods Parkway, Fort Belvoir, Va., formerly of Pittsfield, died Tuesday of heart disease at Inova Fairfax (Va.) Hospital.
He was a longtime practicing physician and surgeon.
Dr. Dettinger was the prime recovery surgeon at Cape Kennedy, now Cape Canaveral, during the Gemini Space Missions. In 1975, he was assigned to the Pentagon, where he served as deputy surgeon general of the United States.
Born in Syracuse, N.Y., on Dec. 23, 1921, son of Maurice and Maxine Leah Bryant Dettinger, he moved to Pittsfield as a child and was a 1939 graduate of Pittsfield High School. Following graduation, he worked with his father in the family-owned Dettinger Lumber Co., now owned by the Sutherland family.
An Air Force veteran of World War II, he joined the Aviation Cadets and was commissioned a pilot in 1943. He served as an instructor pilot and aircraft commander in B-17s and B-29s.
After World War II, he graduated from Harvard University, cum laude, and from Columbia Medical School as an Alpha Omega honor graduate. He became board certified in general surgery, earned a master's degree in surgery, with honors, from Baylor University and was made a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He rejoined the Air Force in 1952.
Dr. Dettinger served throughout the world as chief of surgery and hospital commander. His decorations included the Air Force Commendation Medal, the Legion of Honor and the Distinguished Service Medal.
After retiring from the Air Force in 1980, he practiced medicine with the Fairfax County (Va.) Health Department until 1992 as a surgical consultant to the CIA and as an associate clinical professor at Georgetown University Medical School.
His first wife, the former Ruth Hickingbotham, whom he married Aug. 5, 1939, died Aug. 21, 1996.
He and his wife, the former Jeffa Ogden, were married July 27, 1997.
Besides his wife, he leaves a daughter, Holly Keane of Cuttingsville, Vt.; two sons, Ronald Mark Dettinger of Fredericksburg, Va., and Michael James Dettinger of Springfield, Va.; three grandsons, and three great-grandsons.
FUNERAL NOTICE -- Services for retired Air Force Gen. Garth Bryant Dettinger, 83, will be held in the spring at a time and date to be announced. Following cremation, burial will be in Maple Street Cemetery in Hinsdale. WELLINGTON FUNERAL HOME is in charge of arrangements.
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