Robert Frank Hustead
(2/18/1928 - 12/6/2008)
Robert Hustead was born and raised in Pueblo, Colorado. He was educated at Yale University for his bachelor’s degree and MD. He joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins in 1959, and he served in the departments of anesthesiology and OB/GYN there until 1961 when he moved to Kansas City and joined the faculty of the University of Kansas School of Medicine. In 1973 he and his wife Joy, a CRNA, moved to Wichita, Kansas, and dedicated the rest of their lives to ophthalmic anesthesia.
Dr. Hustead was an inventor of several medical devices, the most noted of which may be the Hustead epidural needle. In Wichita he became devoted to developing and teaching the use of painless local anesthesia for eye blocks. He authored many scientific articles, and his textbook on ophthalmic anesthesia is considered by many to be the best on the subject.
Dr. Hustead was the founder and principal mentor of the Ophthalmic Anesthesia Society, and he is greatly missed by the many members who depended on him for his knowledge in the area of ophthalmic anesthesia. Contributions to the Hustead Memorial Fund support the Annual Hustead Memorial Lecture Series.
