Longtime Batavia doctor O’Dwyer mourned

Dr. John A. O’Dwyer spent the better part of his life keeping Batavians in good health. In his 43 years on the job in Batavia, he delivered thousands of babies at the old Community Hospital in Geneva. As a general, then family, practitioner, O’Dwyer said “he had the best job in the world ... because he could help people,” his son, John O’Dwyer III, said Thursday.

O’Dwyer, 85, died Tuesday in Batavia.

O’Dwyer was a past president of the Kane County Medical Society, the former medical director of the Michealsen Health Center at the Holmstad retirement community in Batavia, and a physician for Marmion Academy.

It all started with an aptitude test given him when he was drafted into the Navy during World War II. The Navy made him a hospital apprentice 1st class. After the war, O’Dwyer abandoned his engineering studies for medicine, and graduated from the Stritch School of Medicine at Loyola University in Chicago.

After a short stint working in Wilmington, he opened a solo practice July 1, 1955, on East Wilson Street in downtown Batavia.

He was kept busy. “He saw everybody,” his son said.

“We joked, ‘No apples in the house’ or we would never see him,” O’Dwyer said, referring to the phrase, an apple a day keeps the doctor away.

Batavia was a lot smaller then, and there was much more farmland around it. O’Dwyer recalled that sometimes, patients would pay their bills with bushels of vegetables. One even paid with half of a side of beef. And he recalled his father telling one woman, who came to the office admitting she couldn’t pay her past-due account, “Let’s start fresh today, and don’t worry about it.”

Dr. O’Dwyer is survived by his wife, Georgene; two daughters; five sons; eight stepdaughters; two stepsons; two brothers; a sister; 33 grandchildren; and 14 grandchildren.

He was preceded in death by his wife of 34 years, Barbara; his wife of 17 years, Mary; son Gregor; and a brother.

A wake will be held from 3 to 9 p.m. Friday at Moss Family Funeral Home, 209 S. Batavia Ave. (Route 31), Batavia. The funeral starts with prayers at 12:30 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home, then a 1 p.m. Mass at Holy Cross Catholic Church, 2300 W. Main St., Batavia.

Memorial gifts can be sent to the Guardian Angel Scholarship Fund at Holy Cross Catholic School.