Philip A. Role, M.D., 61, died June 11 in Sandpoint, Idaho, after a six-year battle with multiple myeloma.
Born in Boston, he moved to Milton where his parents, Josephine T. Role and Theodore Role, still reside. He attended Milton public schools and Boston Latin School. He graduated from Milton Academy in 1967 and Harvard University in 1971.
Dr. Role earned his medical degree and completed an internal-medicine residency at Emory University in Atlanta. He then served in the Navy at the naval hospital in Bremerton, Wash.
After fulfilling his naval obligation, he moved his family to Lewiston, Idaho, where he practiced internal medicine for 11 years.
In 1996, after completing a residency in anesthesiology at the University of Colorado in Denver, Dr. Role moved his family to Sandpoint. He was chief of anesthesia of Bonner General Hospital there until his 2004 cancer diagnosis.
He is also survived by his wife, Marycatherine Streiff Role; two sons, Nathaniel Morgan Role and Abraham Lucas Role, and a daughter, Sarah Maurine Role Schaffer of Seattle; and his sisters, Nancy Role Mendell of Setauket, N.Y., and Lorna Role Talmadge of Port Jefferson, N.Y.
Donations may be made to a charity, or to a fund in his memory by sending a check payable to Marycatherine Role, 413 2nd Ave., Sandpoint, ID 83864.