C. Richard A. Gilbert, 93, Area Gynecologist Whose Career Spanned 65 Years

C. Richard A. Gilbert, 93, a gynecologist who still saw patients several days a week, died June 18 at his home in Silver Spring after a heart attack.

Dr. Gilbert had been in private practice in the Washington area since 1954, primarily as an obstetrician and gynecologist.

He wrote a number of medical books on childbirth and women's health, co-edited a book on abdominal surgery and wrote and directed an early audio-visual surgical correspondence course for continuing medical education.

He gave up obstetrics and surgery several years ago, but continued to practice gynecology.

Charles Richard Alsop Gilbert was born in Philadelphia and graduated from the University of Virginia. He received a medical degree there in 1944. He was a resident in gynecology at Johns Hopkins University Medical Center. He served in the Air Force in the late 1940s.

Dr. Gilbert worked in a variety of positions, including as associate clinical professor in obstetrics, gynecology and female urology at the University of Puerto Rico medical school, and chief resident of OB/GYN and instructor of gynecological pathology at the University of Maryland medical school.

He was also associate clinical professor at the George Washington University medical school. He held staff positions at 13 hospitals in the Washington area and nine hospitals in Puerto Rico.

Dr. Gilbert was a past president of the American Society of Abdominal Surgeons and the Safari Club International, an organization of hunters.

Using a shotgun and his English setters, he hunted quail and pheasant locally, and he went on big-game safaris to Africa and Alaska armed with bow and arrow.

His marriage to Ana H. Gilbert ended in divorce.

Survivors include his wife, Helene Gilbert of Silver Spring; two children from his first marriage, Anita I. Gilbert of Chevy Chase and Dick Gilbert of Gaithersburg; four stepchildren, Susan McHoul of Silver Spring, Linda Coleman of Kensington, Dan Poyourow of Rockville and Steven Poyourow of Silver Spring; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

-- Patricia Sullivan