Oscar Cebren Stine
Oscar Cebren Stine, M.D., Dr. P.H., physician, farmer, researcher, husband, father and grandfather, died March 14, 2016 at the Community Living Center of the Martinsburg Veterans Administration Hospital. He was born June 11, 1927; he grew up in Washington, D.C., and his family also owned a farm in Jefferson County. He served in the Navy at the end of World War II He met his true love and wife, Janet Elizabeth Brown at Oberlin College. They were married in 1951, and celebrated their 64th wedding anniversary this past year.
He graduated from George Washington Medical School, did his residency and internship in pediatrics and earned a doctorate in Public Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. He dedicated his work to serving people who did not have adequate health care: intercity African American children in the early sixties, Hopkins’ Maternal and Child Health clinic, the pilot project that lead to Head Start, the Community Pediatric Center at the University of Maryland, unwed teenage mothers in the late sixties. In 1975, he became the founding director of the Ambulatory Care Department at Greater Baltimore Medical Center and introduced same day surgery. He came to the Martinsburg VA Hospital in 1985, first in the Ambulatory Care Department and then working with extended rehabilitation programs for homeless veterans in the Domiciliary. As a physician he was known for listening and caring deeply about his patients and carefully considering his diagnoses.
Throughout his career he pursued research, ranging in topics from well baby clinics to assessing the health of culturally-deprived children, from teenage pregnancy to the health and mental health problems of homeless in Baltimore. After his retirement in 2001, he continued to work as a volunteer at the VA for ten years researching spiritual injury and PTSD in veterans.
With the death of his father in 1974, Dr. Stine and his wife Janet began managing the farm Elmwood, two miles outside Shepherdstown; they moved there full time in 1985. He developed a pureblood Red Angus herd, sold bulls to cattlemen from New York to North Carolina. His love of the land led to intensive efforts in conservation, recognized when he was named Conservation Farmer of the Year for Jefferson County and culminating in Elmwood becoming an early farm protected by a conservation easement through the Farmland Protection Board. He also served the community on the Water Advisory Board as well as by being active members with his wife of the Farm Bureau, Jefferson County Historical Society and other organizations.
Oscar and Janet shared their love of education, farming, scouting, music, dance, and family with their children and grandchildren. Dr. Stine is survived by: his wife Janet B. Stine, his children Oscar Colin Stine and his wife Jeananne Stine, Karin Elizabeth Stine, Nancy S. Meyer and her husband Donald Meyer, Susan M. S. Donham and her husband Christopher Donham, and his grandchildren Maryruth Speerstra Stine, Sarabeth Bovill Stine and Oscar Charters Stine, Ryan Meyer, Aaron Meyer and Keith Meyer. One daughter, Amy Ruth Stine, died in 2008; her husband Bill Brose and his fiance Dorolyn Smith are part of the family.
A memorial service was held Saturday March 19, 2 p.m., Shepherdstown Presbyterian Church. Please send gifts to: Jefferson County Farmland Protection Board.