BRUNSWICK — Dr. Rudolf Winkelbauer, 88, retired obstetrician-gynecologist from Brunswick, died peacefully on Oct. 20 at Cadigan Lodge (The Highlands) in Topsham.

He was born April 9, 1926 in Vienna, Austria the youngest of four children. His father, Adolf Winkelbauer, was professor of surgery at the University of Vienna. His mother, Edina Countess Clam-Gallas, was of noble lineage and had forestry and agricultural estates in the Sudetenland, now the northern Czech Republic.

It was during the summers spent on his mother’s land that Winkelbauer developed his deep and enduring love of nature and wildlife. Even as a young boy he was a gifted sportsman, and often stayed up through the night, sitting in a high stand, waiting for the arrival of game in the moonlight.

Music was woven firmly into his life. He started his musical training on the violin, and auditioned for the Vienna Philharmonic as a young boy. Later he taught himself how to play the piano and cello, and enjoyed playing in a string quartet with friends.

After World War II, Winkelbauer finished four years of medical school in Austria, and then immigrated to the U.S. and finished his post-graduate training in 1952 at the Parkland Hospital in Dallas.

While in Dallas, he set his eye on a beautiful red head, Marion Fahey, of Kansas City, and married her in 1954. After completing his specialty training in 1956 and the birth of the couple’s first daughter, Lori, he served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in a number of large OB-GYN military facilities at the height of the post-war baby boom.

During a two-year posting in Stuttgart, Germany, their second daughter, Chrissi, was born in 1959. Following completion of Winkelbauer’s military tour, the family moved to Brunswick, where he established his practice in obstetrics and gynecology. In the next 30 years, he delivered thousands of babies, before retired in 1990. He rarely went anywhere in Brunswick without bumping into former patients. Some of the babies he delivered he enjoyed meeting again among the Highlands staff.

Winkelbauer loved dogs from a very young age, and was never without at least one by his side. He was very active in dog field-trialing, and imported dogs from England and Ireland. Over the years he won many prizes the performance and handling of his dogs. He was also a skeet enthusiast, and spent many happy hours with his friend, Brad Varney, at Varney’s Clay Sports in Richmond.

Winkelbauer’s wife, Marion, predeceased him in 2009. He is survived by daughters Lori Parkinson, and her husband, Durward Parkinson, of Kennebunk, and Chrissi Kelly, and her husband, Thomas Kelly of Twyford, Hampshire, England; and four grandchildren, Emma and Isabel Parkinson, and Jenny and William Mosseri-Marlio.

His family is very grateful for the kind and loving care that he received  at Cadigan Lodge, and hospice care provided by CHANS. Burial will be private.

A reception to celebrate his life will be held at 4 p.m. Friday at The Brunswick Inn, 165 Park Row, Brunswick.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Brunswick-Topsham Land Trust, 108 Maine St., Brunswick, ME 04011; Coastal Humane Society, 30 Range Road, Brunswick, ME 04011; or the Brunswick Dog Park, c/o Town of Brunswick, P.O. Box 821, Brunswick, ME 04011.

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