Extracted from The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
LONGTIME MEMPHIS VA PSYCHIATRIST R. P. STATHAM DIES AT 63
Dr. Richard P. Statham served his country in the Strategic Air Command during the Vietnam War and on the staff of the U.S. Surgeon General.
When he returned to the Mid-South he continued to serve, working with men and women with mental health needs for 35 years as the chief psychiatrist at the Veterans Administration Medical Center at Memphis.
Dr. Statham died Wednesday at St. Francis Hospital of heart failure. He was 63.
A native of McComb, Miss., Dr. Statham began his premedical training at Louisiana State University and completed medical school at the University of Mississippi at Jackson.
For six years he served in the Air Force with the 91st Bomb Wing of the Strategic Air Command as a flight surgeon with the rank of major.
He was stationed in Texas, California and Maryland as well as at the former air base in Blytheville, Ark.
He completed his residency in psychiatry at the University of Tennessee Medical School in Memphis.
Before his retirement he was chief psychiatrist at the Memphis VA hospital.
He was honored for his service to veterans with a flagpole dedication and ceremony at Greers Ferry, Ark.
Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Memorial Park Funeral Home with entombment in Memorial Park Mausoleum.
Dr. Statham, the husband of Sylvia R. Statham for 41 years, also leaves a son, Richard Kevin Statham of Collierville; his parents, Pauline and Richard L. Statham of McComb, and three grandsons.
The family requests that memorials be sent to Looke Building Campaign for Grace Evangelical Church.
Friday, October 6, 2000