Robert G. Rizza, MD,81, retired pediatrician and general practitioner died Wednesday, September 19, 2012. Rosary was held Sunday, Septetmber 23 and funeral mass was celebrated Monday, September 24 at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Halstead.
Dr. Rizza was born October 31, 1930, the second son of Al and Georgia Hall Rizza in Savannah, Georgia. He was a 1948 graduate of Benedictine Military School Savannah, received his B.S. degree in biology at the University of Georgia in 1952 and his M.D. degree from the Medical College of Georgia in 1956. Prior to his graduation from medical school he married his college sweetheart, Katherine "Kitty" M. Redmond on January 29,1956.
He served in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps from May 1956 through February of 1965 where he completed his internship in Portsmouth, Virginia and residency iin Oakland, California. Dr. Rizza served as staf pedicatrician at the USN Hospital in Yokosuka, Japan and was asssistant chief of pediatrics at the USN Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. He was a Vietnam-era veteran.
He moved to Kansas in the spring of 1965 and was chief pediatrician at the Hertzler Clinic in Halstead from 1965 until he started his own general practice in his home specializing in family medicine in 1976. Dr. Rizza retired in 1996 when he and Kitty moved to Garfield, Arkansas near Beaver Lake in Lost Bridge Village where they remained before returning to Kansas in 2009.
Survivors: wfe: daughter, Katy Coy )Bill) of Wichita; Stephen Rizza (Sarah) of rural Burrton; Andrew Rizza (Beth) of Hesston and Jeremy Rizza (Chris) of Wichita; brother, Frank A. Rizza, MD, Savannah, Georgia 6 grandchildren and one great granddaughter.
Internment in Savannah, Georgia Cemetery.
