Philip C. Hessburg was born on May 16, 1930 and passed on October 2, 2024 (94). He became a member of the MCGP on November 11, 2004 (19).
While Dr. Philip Hessburg has been featured in a myriad of medical journals and newspapers over the years, his media debut was in the Milwaukee County Sentinel. On the day after Marquette Jesuit High School banned hitch hiking, high school student Phil Hessburg was pictured on the front page of the paper, above the fold, hitch hiking. A sign of things to come: a reverent man with perhaps a streak of irreverence.
Born to Aloysius and Helen Hessburg on May 16, 1930, in Minneapolis, MN, Philip was the third of four children. When he was 12, he moved with his family to Milwaukee, WI, where he attended Marquette High School. He subsequently attended St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN, and then Marquette Medical School. During a rotation at Milwaukee County General Hospital, he met his future wife, Elizabeth (Betsy) Haupt. Following a brief courtship they married in 1955 and welcomed their first child, Mary Star, the following year.
Dr. Hessburg next took a position at Henry Ford Hospital (HFH) in Detroit, MI, as an intern, where he initially planned to do a urology residency. During his internship, he was drafted into the United States Air Force as a Flight Surgeon with the 310th Bomb Wing, Strategic Air Command, based in Salina, KS, where he also served as the base pediatrician. His second child, Daniel, was born while he served in the Air Force.
Following his military service, Dr. Hessburg returned to HFH after being invited to join the Department of Ophthalmology. During his residency, children Tom, John and Soozi were born. Upon completion of his residency he joined the staff at HFH, where he remained until going in to private practice with Jim Marshall, MD, in 1972. He and Dr. Marshall were eventually joined by Ed O’Malley, MD; Carole West, MD; and Jim Klein, MD, at Grosse Pointe Ophthalmology. Together they created one of the first multi-subspecialty ophthalmic practices in the country. One of the great highlights of his professional career was the day his son Tom joined his practice as a retinal surgeon. Dr. Hessburg continued to see patients until retiring from the practice of medicine in 2005. He then joined the staff of the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology (DIO), the charitable organization he founded in 1970 that aims to assist the visually impaired. He continued to help the visually impaired until he retired in January of 2024. As Medical Director for the DIO, Henry Ford Health System, he created two international research congresses: The Eye and the Chip, a program that seeks to marry the most recent advances in nanoelectronics and neurobiology to provide artificial vision to many people who are now blind as a result of many eye conditions, diseases and injuries; and, the Eye, The Brain, and The Auto, a program dedicated to improving the understanding of the relationship between vision and the safe operation of motor vehicles, in an attempt to reduce the number of highway fatalities. These programs, as well as aide and support provided to the visually impaired the DOI has the privilege to serve have been supported by the selfless work of Dr. Hessburg, the automotive design community, and countless volunteers who put on the annual Eyes On Design Car Show.
Dr. O’Malley, Dr. Hessburg’s partner and very close friend summed up his feelings, and really those of the Hessburg family, as follows:
Philip Charles Hessburg MD died on October 2, 2024 at the age of 94, following a short battle with cancer. Despite his advanced years, Phil’s death shocked all who loved him because like the Energizer Bunny—he just kept going and going and going. He was a member of the Henry Ford Hospital community for parts of eight decades, inventing and reinventing himself to meet each new challenge. He was the consummate physician but he wore so many other hats—teacher, mentor, researcher, writer, inventor, leader and advocate for the public good. But most importantly, he was a husband, father, grandfather and friend.
Phil’s curriculum vitae is eleven pages, single-spaced in nine-point type. It is worth reading. Phil never knew where the sidelines were—he was always in the middle of the action. No matter the issue, Phil was able to advocate on the right side of any issue with gentleness and good humor. He was a people magnet who drew energy from the young people he mentored. He made you think you were the most important person in the world, and you were capable of feats you did not think possible. You believed in yourself because Phil believed in you.
He privately joked about age and mortality as he neared the end of a life well lived. His impact on people and institutions will endure long after he is gone. The world is a far better place because Phil Hessburg was in it.
Dr. Hessburg’s professional accomplishments are many. In addition to being a highly accomplished general ophthalmologist and surgeon, he was a researcher and inventor. He authored over 100 peer-reviewed papers on a variety of ophthalmic issues. He also invented one of the early intraocular lenses (IOLs) used in cataract surgery, as well as a vacuum corneal trephine for use in corneal transplants that is commonly used today. Additional inventions included a sub-palpebral lavage system, a surgical correlator, ophthalmic pressure dressings and a corneal light guard, inventions that delivered medications directly to the eye, and improved surgical efficiencies and outcomes. Dr. Hessburg also founded Mediventures, Inc., a pharmaceutical development company that successfully developed a rapid dissolving drug delivery system for children and individuals with swallowing difficulties that is widely used today with a number of different medications.
He was also a passionate researcher and writer outside the field of medicine, penning papers and book chapters on a variety of topics including the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the Duomo Cathedral in Florence, Italy. His tinkerer’s spirit extended to his parenting as well: the father of five young swimmers, he invented a swimming machine, the Hessburg Power Stroke, which used resistance and weights to simulate the four competitive strokes on dry land.
Outside of the professional world, Dr. Hessburg was a proud father of 5 children, 17 grandchildren, and 5 great grandchildren. In his free time, he was an avid reader and traveler. He had a great fondness for koi ponds, building two of them in his back yard. Never one for idle hands, Dr. Hessburg was a talented woodworker who built most of his furniture when he was first married and did much of the updating on his family’s Three Mile home. When the family needed to “call the guy” to fix something, they called him.
Though his children took to the pool, Dr. Hessburg was at home at the ice rink, as all good Minnesotan children are. He went on to play at St. John’s University, and as a physician at HFH he had the privilege of treating many of the Detroit Red Wings. He even reattached the retina of one well-known Wing following an “altercation” on the ice.
His son, Daniel, and his sisters, Mary Helen and Marguerite, predeceased Dr. Hessburg. He is survived by his wife of 68 years and best friend, Betsy; his sister, Sr. Mary Aloyse; his sister-in-law, Sr. Marie Judith; his children Mary Star (Craig), Tom, John (TJ) and Soozi (Tim); his grandchildren, Annie, Chris, Sam, Philip, Frank (Loren), Tom (Moriah), Daniel, Maria, Tommy, Mary Clare, Jack (Benny), Joseph (Cat), Luke (Kienne), Matthew, Carly (Patrick), Lilly and Abigail; and five great grandchildren, Presley, Harlynn, Everly, Ford and Hadley.
Visitation will take place on Wednesday, October 9 from 4pm to 8pm at Chas. Verheyden, Inc., 16300 Mack Ave., Grosse Pointe Park. He will lie in state on Thursday, October 10 from 10 am until the time of the Funeral Mass at 10:30 am at St. Clare of Montefalco Catholic Church, 1401 Whittier, Grosse Pointe Park.
Memorial contributions can be made to the Hessburg/Van Elslander Chair at the Detroit Institute of Ophthalmology.