[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 131 (Wednesday, September 7, 2011)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1542-E1543]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING GREGORY WAYNE MEYER, M.D.

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JEFF DENHAM

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 7, 2011

  Mr. DENHAM. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to acknowledge and honor the 
life of a beloved doctor in the Merced Community, Gregory Wayne Meyer, 
M.D.
  Gregory Wayne Meyer, M.D. was born in 1957 in Merced, California and 
died at the age of 53 after a tragic hiking accident on June 29, 2011 
in Yosemite National Park. A family lost more than a husband, father, 
son and brother when Dr. Meyer died while trying to rescue a friend and 
colleague in Hetch Hetchy, Yosemite National Park.
  Dr. Meyer, 53, and physician assistant Richard Fox, 53, were swept to 
their deaths while trying to cross a bridge at Wapama Falls, which was 
swollen by near-record ice melt and an unseasonably late thunderstorm. 
Meyer was trying to save Fox, who was overtaken by rushing water 
according to Paula Meyer who survived the accident.
  The Meyer family lost a budding rancher, a gourmet cook, the driver 
of a battered '69 green pickup, a tree grower, a pie baker, a wine 
connoisseur, an ice cream maker and a man whose trademark under 
pressure was striving to be the calmest man in the ER. Greg touched all 
those around him with a special sense of ``grace and elegance,'' which 
is how he defined a ``great'' practitioner of emergency medicine, which 
is what he did at Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital in Whittier.
  That's where the Merced High graduate met his wife, Paula, in 1997, 
when he was a doctor and she was a physician assistant. It wasn't love 
at first sight--``we bonded over cooking,'' she recalls--but after they 
were married in 2006, they became inseparable and expanded their joy 
with twin daughters, Kate and Emily, in 2008.
  His parents think back to a boy who borrowed $140 from his dad at age 
8 to buy a Hereford bull. He saved nickels from his allowance to pay 
back the loan, with 1 percent interest, until his dad finally told him 
he could pay him in full when he sold Cheyenne, the bull. ``He had 30 
head of cattle when he went to college,'' his mom remembers.
  And Paula, Texas-born but Southern California-bred, had no clue that 
the guy who took her to lunch at the Bel Air Hotel in L.A. for their 
first date was more comfortable riding in the ``Green Beast'' pickup, 
wearing an old straw Stetson hat and muddy work boots. ``Bet you never 
thought when you met me you'd get cow bleep on your shoes,'' he told 
her after one of their trips back to Merced. It was also on a visit to 
Merced that he took her to the Branding Iron and they dined under his 
own brand.
  He blended a high-profile career in emergency medicine with a down-
home love of the ranch. Paula used to surprise and entertain friends at 
the ER with photos of the two of them in Merced, hauling compost and 
working the land. In recent years, they'd begun to spend two weeks in 
Whittier and two weeks in Merced, at the 17-acre ranch where he planted 
oak, peach, almond, cherry and plum trees. ``He was living his dream,'' 
his mom says. Adds Paula: ``We had a charmed and beautiful

[[Page E1543]]

life. I've never met anybody who had a happier childhood and lived 
everyday to the fullest.''
  Greg was an Elks member, donated to the Merced Theater restoration 
project, contributed to the Presbyterian Intercommunity Hospital 
Foundation in Whittier as well as to Mercy Medical Center Merced 
although his own medical partnership was in Southern California.
  He learned to cook and loved it. Their babies' first solid food was 
fresh steamed broccoli and rutabagas he'd grown. With good food came 
good wine, and although he wasn't a snob, he liked to pick wines he 
liked. Years ago, he proposed to Paula at Hetch Hetchy after telling 
her to come look at some ``variegated stones'' in the water--and the 
ruby one was a bottle of Peter Michael wine. Two days before he died, 
he reproposed to her, using the same ploy and the same wine, while 
asking if she knew everything she knew now back when he first asked her 
to marry him, would she have done it? ``Oh yes,'' she told him. ``I had 
no doubts in how much I was loved.''
  Greg was all-Merced through and through, a career lifesaver and a 
hero to many. One of his partners says that although there were 13 
doctors in the Whittier partnership, Greg was an ``influential de facto 
leader. He had this ability to get in there and work with all the 
partners.'' One of them, Dennis Conneen, was on a 10-day religious 
retreat in England, broke off his trip after two days and flew back to 
California when he heard Greg had died. He was a cherished friend of 
Greg's and delivered a beautiful eulogy at Greg's memorial service in 
Whittier.
  Greg is survived by his wife, Paula, his twin daughters Kate and 
Emily, his parents, Chuck and Annetta Meyer of Merced and sister; 
Kellee Meyer and her husband Doug Brown, also from Merced, his 
grandmother, Mary Wood, his aunt, Myrna Akins, of McHenry, IL and three 
cousins, Andrea Akins Berrett of Arrington, TN, Angela Smith of Rancho 
Santa Margarita, CA, and Aric Akins of Poplar Grove, IL and their 
respective spouses and children. Greg was predeceased by his 
grandfather, Iris (Spud) Wood, who was extremely inspirational to Greg 
in both his love of the outdoors and farm life.
  Greg attended Merced High School, University of California at Irvine 
for both his undergraduate and medical degrees. He completed his 
internship and residency in Emergency Medicine at Harbor UCLA in Los 
Angeles, and a fellowship in Hyperbaric Medicine at Long Beach 
Memorial, Long Beach, CA.
  Greg's family is profoundly grateful to Mark Alee, the California 
Conservation Corps professional who bravely risked his life trying to 
save Ric and Greg. Paula acknowledges she may not be alive today if it 
weren't for Mark's selfless act of heroism, quick physical strength and 
his strength of character. Steve Yu, the lead investigator, Rebecca 
Lund, the family liason, both with the National Park Service have 
treated our family with unusual kindness and respect throughout this 
tragedy. We also are grateful for the many men and women who searched 
tirelessly for Greg after the accident under extreme conditions.
  Mr. Speaker, please join me in honoring Gregory Wayne Meyer, M.D. for 
his unwavering leadership, and recognizing his accomplishments and 
contributions to the Merced Community. The life of Dr. Meyer serves as 
an example of excellence to those in our community, and his legacy will 
not be soon forgotten.

                          ____________________