CLIFTON
- Robert Heidt, the longtime Reds and Bengals doctor who also founded one of the region’s biggest medical practices, died Tuesday morning of prostate cancer at his home in Clifton. He was 85.
Dr. Heidt founded Wellington Orthopaedic & Sports Medicine in 1978. By the time he retired in 2000, he had helped to serve orthopedic patients here for nearly 50 years.
He was the Reds’ team orthopedist from 1968 to 1990 and served the same role for the Bengals from 1980 to 1998.
“He’s left a great legacy,” said his son Rob Heidt of Indian Hill, an orthopedist who has followed the same path to Wellington, the Reds and the Bengals. “He was among the last of doctors to be jack of all trades and master of them all.”
During Super Bowl XXIII in January 1989, Robert Heidt was among the first on the field to treat Bengal defensive lineman Tim Krumrie after he suffered a gruesome leg injury.
“He just said, ‘I’ll take care of it,’” Rob Heidt said. “He went back there and personally set Tim’s leg.”
Bengals owner Mike Brown recalled road trips where Dr. Heidt would always be golfing or fishing or some other activity.
“After all that, he’d show up to get on the bus with us to go to the stadium, and we would have done nothing and he would have had a full day,” Brown said. “He was always doing so many things.
“He had a way with people where he gained their confidence,” Brown added. “He was very good as a doctor, and they knew it.”
Dr. Heidt was born in Park Hills and graduated from Covington Latin School in 1941. He earned degrees from the University of Cincinnati in 1944 and the University of Louisville School of Medicine in 1948.
Other than two years in the U.S. Air Force from 1951 to 1953 and several stints at hospitals in Boston soon after, Dr. Heidt worked his entire career in Cincinnati.
He had a longtime affiliation with Christ Hospital and was president of the medical staff there from 1979 to 1981.
Dr. Heidt’s wife, Fritzi, said Wellington, which has grown to 29 doctors and about 350 employees, was a longtime goal for her husband.
“From the beginning of our marriage, his dream was to have his own private clinic,” she said.
She called him a “stickler” for details at the practice and the hospital.
“He wanted everything done perfectly,” she said. “If it wasn’t, he was not a happy camper.”
In addition to his wife and son, survivors include five daughters, Carol Snyder of Maineville, Tracy Keating of Green Township, Holly Kross of Green Township, Gretchen Jackson of Franklin, Tenn., and Lauren Kuetemeyer of Lake Bluff, Ill.; a brother, Richard Heidt of Loveland; 17 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Funeral services will be held 10 a.m. Saturday at the Church of the Annunciation, 3547 Clifton Ave., Clifton, with burial to follow in Gate of Heaven cemetery. A reception will follow at noon at Cincinnati Country Club, 2348 Grandin Road, Hyde Park.
Memorials: Christ Hospital, Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, 2139 Auburn Ave., Cincinnati, OH 45219.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110517/NEWS0104/105180320/