Donna Mae Sommer
May 9, 1928-July 9, 2017
Palo Alto, CA
Submitted by Matthew H. Sommer

Donna Mae Sommer, M.D. (89) died on July 9, 2017, after a long struggle with Alzheimer’s disease, at her home in Palo Alto. Born in the little prairie town of Westhope, ND, she was the older daughter of the late Helen (Nedry) and Harvey A. Meddaugh. She married John L. Sommer, M.D. on June 14, 1953. He survives.

Also surviving are younger son Matthew and daughter-in-law Ih-hae Chang (of Stanford, CA), grandchildren Anne and Joseph, and sister Janice (Meddaugh) Christensen (of Fruitland, MD). She was preceded in death by her older son Andrew (2012).

Donna Mae graduated from Macalester College (1950) and then received her M.D. (1954) and training in pediatrics at the University of Chicago, where she met husband John. Sons Andrew and Matthew were born in Chicago. In 1955, Donna Mae was part of a team of surgeons who successfully separated conjoined twins using a new procedure to divide their common liver. She taught and practiced pediatrics at the University of Chicago’s School of Medicine until 1966, when the family moved to Fremont, California, and she and John joined the Permanente Medical Group and began practicing medicine at Kaiser’s Hayward facility, where she spent the rest of her career. She retired in 1990. In 2005, she and John moved to Palo Alto.

Donna Mae enjoyed traveling with family (Europe, Turkey, Central Asia, Russia, China, Japan), dining with friends, listening to opera, collecting textiles, reading mystery novels, and watching football and women’s basketball. She loved listening to her local NPR station, KQED. She was a former member of the Fremont Congregational Church.