William Yates Trotter Jr.

William Yates Trotter Jr., M.D., a long-time Springfield Physician, died on January 17, 2021 at his home, surrounded by his wife and sons. He was 90. Dr. Trotter, known as Yates, was born on August 22, 1930, to Martha (Hayes) and William Yates Trotter Sr. in Monticello, Ark., a small town that he remembered as being populated by colorful characters and brimming with seemingly fantastical events that would animate joyful stories he told his entire life. He treasured his Boy Scout experience (he became an Eagle) as the Scoutmaster. Zeb White, later became a Dean of the Yale School of Forestry. After graduating from high school in 1948, he was class president his senior year, Dr. Trotter attended Washington University and Lee University, in Lexington, Va., where he majored in chemistry. In 1952 he entered Washington University Medical School, in St. Louis. While a senior there, he met Janet Steinmetz, a first grade teacher from St. Louis. The two were married in 1954. Following his graduation from medical school, Dr. Trotter and his wife moved to New Haven, Conn., for his internship and then to Atlanta, where he joined the Communicable Disease Center (now the Centers for Disease Control). Dr. Trotter worked as a disease investigator with the CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Services (EIS). In 1958, he traveled to East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to help strengthen its smallpox vaccination program during an outbreak that killed at least 20,000 people. That same year, Dr. Trotter returned to St. Louis to continue his medical training, serving as assistant resident at Barnes Hospital and, later, as chief resident at City Hospital. In 1961, he moved his growing family to Springfield, for an internal medicine practice associated with St. John's Hospital (now Mercy). Encouraged by a neighbor to resume playing the tuba, his high school instrument in high school, Dr. Trotter also learned to play the trombone and joined a Dixieland band composed of local physicians called the Dixie Docs. He eventually won a chair playing tuba in the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, of which he remained a member 1986. Later he joined a brass quintet and they played weekly in his basement for 35 years. During his 40's, he resumed his high school track and field activities, and, in time, was rated one of Missouri's best 50+ runners, once winning a 10-mile Thanksgiving Day race along the Mississippi River in just over sixty-one minutes. Dr. Trotter was an avid and tenacious handyman, fearlessly tackling building projects in his home and his church until declining health finally stopped him. He and his wife also enjoyed ballroom dancing and cycling. He also served on the Springfield-Greene County Library Board of Directors from 1984 to 1990 and was president from 1987-1989. An avid genealogist, Dr. Trotter spent years researching his family's history, poring through boxes of old letters and visiting county courthouses across the Southeast. This research culminated in his crowning achievement, the writing of two books of reminiscences: one about his grandfather, V.J. Trotter, entitled Granddaddy, and a memoir of his own early life, Childhood Memories From Monticello, 1933-1948, in which he finally committed to paper stories with which he had regaled people all his life. Dr. Trotter is survived by his wife, Janet, to who he was married for 66 years; three sons, Bill (Hope), of Springfield, John, of Brooklyn, N.Y. (partner, Mita Patel), and Jim, of Dallas, Texas; two sisters, Patricia Kirkland (Thomas) of Charleston, S.C., and Martha Kurad of Mobile, Ala.; a brother, Virgil, of Little Rock, Ark.; and numerous nieces, nephews, grandnieces, grandnephews and cousins, Mrs. Stan Cook (Lucille), Texarkana, Texas. and Mrs. John King (Ann), Helena, Ark. For decades, he also remained close to Amjad Chowdhury, of Reno, Nev., who was the son of his interpreter in Bangladesh and who lived in the Trotter home throughout his education at SMSU in the 1980's. Arrangements are under the direction of Gorman-Scharpf Funeral Home. There will be a small graveside service for family at Maple Park Cemetery. Memorials may be sent to the Drew County Historical Museum, Springfield Symphony, 411 N. Sherman Pkwy, Springfield, Mo. 65802 or Westminster Presbyterian Church, 1551 E Portland St, Springfield, Mo. 65804.