WALLACE OMAN LECHER JR. ’52
Wally Lecher died of a stroke on Feb. 29, 2008, at the Atlantic General Hospital in Berlin, Md. He had retired as a physician eight years earlier after developing significant back problems with constant pain following unsuccessful surgery in 2000.
Wally was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., but grew up in the Philadelphia area where he graduated from Upper Darby High School before coming to Amherst. While at college he was a member of Delta Upsilon fraternity and an accomplished tennis and squash player. One of his close friends, Bob Jones, fondly remembers the many times they drove together between Philadelphia and Amherst as well as many of the double dates they had together while at school. After leaving Amherst, Wally received his medical degree in 1956 from Hahnemann Medical College, served his internship at Hahnemann-related hospitals and then went on to residency in urology between 1957 and 1961.
For the next 25 years, Wally had a strong and successful practice in urology that was essentially focused in Riddle Memorial Hospital (Media, Pa.) though he had full privileges at Fitzgerald Mercy Hospital and Crozer Chester Medical Center. Over time he became president of the Philadelphia Hahnemann Medical Association, president of Riddle Memorial Hospital and president of the Delaware County (Pa.) Medical Society.
In 1985 Wally retired from his urology practice, became medical director for the Glenn Mills Schools and soon thereafter met Annette Georgette Kirsch, who later became his second wife. In 1992 they moved to Bethany Beach (Del.) where Wally, with Annette, opened a family-oriented medical practice. Wally also served as medical director for Harbor Health Care and Rehabilitation Center in Lewes (Del.) and the Millsboro Rehabilitation Center in Millsboro (Del.).
Throughout his years of medical service, Wally always retained his marvelous ability and enthusiasm for athletic activity. He was an avid, low handicap golfer and his wife says “whenever time permitted you could nearly always find him on the golf course—he literally had dozens of golf trophies!” But his tennis, too, was also absolutely first rate: In 1978, he won the world cup match of the French Medical Association of Tennis which, in the world of tennis, is about as good as it gets for an amateur.
The Class of 1952 will long remember this worthy classmate and extends it heartfelt sympathy to his wife, Annette.
—Richmond M. Keeney ’52