David Robert Welling—a career U.S. Air Force surgeon and medical university professor who took great pride in saving and bettering the lives of other people, including many cancer patients—was himself felled by cancer on August 9, 2024 in St. Anthony, Idaho.

David (or "Mike," as many family members call him), was born on September 24, 1944 in Coronado, California, to Nellie Jean Potter Stewart Welling and David Madsen Welling, a communications training officer in the U.S. Navy. David was the Wellings' second child, born between Elizabeth Ann ("Becky") and Margaret Penny. Not long after World War II ended, the family moved back to Utah, where their Mormon pioneer ancestors had settled in the nineteenth century.

David survived a brush with polio and mysterious attempts on his life as a baby (reportedly involving a pillow and some cactus leaves) to become an adventurous, sometimes mischievous, boy. Most of his childhood and adolescence were spent in North Ogden in a house that the family had built, brick by brick, with their own hands. David, his sisters, and many relatives and friends enjoyed hunting, fishing, and riding horses in what was then a small rural community, surrounded by loving neighbors and cherry orchards at the foot of Ben Lomond mountain. Perhaps David's military career could be said to have begun with his cavalry experience in the North Ogden Junior Posse. David's achievements as a young man included becoming a successful student, learning to work hard during summers spent on his uncle Fred and aunt Phyllis Stewart's farm in Idaho, fending off hungry bears on Boy Scout trips to Yellowstone, and managing not to burn down most of the scrub oak forest on Ben Lomond.

After graduating from Weber High School, David was called to serve a two-and-a-half-year mission in France for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Despite having received virtually no language training before leaving the United States, he quickly became fluent in French. He was proud to have helped his church establish a foothold in the city of Pau in southern France. The son of remarkably well-traveled parents, David had little trouble becoming a citizen of the world himself; he went on to build strong friendships and international medical partnerships in France, Germany, Mexico, and various other countries.

David was sealed on August 17, 1967 to Lindy Harrison in the Salt Lake City LDS Temple. Over the years, they were blessed with three children: Bart, Matt, and Cassandra.

David graduated with a degree in chemistry from Brigham Young University and an M.D. from the University of Utah. David's (eventually Colonel Welling's) Air Force medical career began with a surgery internship in San Antonio, Texas in 1973. Later assignments would include stints in Florida, Utah, Minnesota, California, and many years at different American military hospitals in Germany. Living in Germany gave David, Lindy, and their children wonderful opportunities to try new food and explore other cultures. David and Lindy's accomplishments in Europe included teaching their kids to ski in Austria, introducing Norwegians to Mexican cuisine, and successfully navigating a brown 1979 Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser station wagon through the Place de l'Étoile in Paris—a maelstrom of honking taxis and beeping mopeds where twelve avenues converge on the Arc de Triomphe.

While David received numerous awards for his skill as a surgeon, he was happiest when he knew that he had saved an injured soldier's life or added a few more years to the life of a sick veteran or veteran's spouse. He was saddest whenever one of his patients couldn't be saved. His children remember being taken to visit some of their dad's patients as they recovered from surgery on quiet Sunday afternoons in Air Force base hospitals. David frequently expressed how grateful he was, as a military doctor, to be able to give all his patients, from young airmen to four-star generals, the best medical care available without ever having to fight insurance companies or worry about malpractice lawsuits. Your tax dollars at work!

After retiring from active duty in the Air Force in 2002, David began a second career as an anatomy professor at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Maryland. In addition to teaching future military doctors the difference between the medulla oblongata and the metatarsal bones, David mentored many USUHS students and recruited talented undergraduates at other universities. David continued to care for patients at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and elsewhere, but he also delivered dozens of conference papers in the U.S. and abroad. With his colleagues, he published articles in medical journals ranging from Military Medicine to the World Journal of Surgery to the Chinese Journal of Traumatology. One of his most frequently cited articles is titled "Seven Sins of Humanitarian Medicine." Among other things, David took a keen interest in the history of military surgery; his adeptness in French made it possible for him to do research in France on the Baron Dominique Jean Larrey, Surgeon to Napoleon's Imperial Guard.

David was board-certified in General Surgery and colorectal surgery, and he was recognized by the Society of Apothecaries of London for his expertise as a practitioner of trauma surgery. He retired from USUHS in 2019 as a Professor of Surgery.

While preparing for retirement, David and Lindy were able to fulfill a decades-old dream by building a cabin in Island Park, in the Welling Addition on I. P. Bills Island, on land named after David's father. The cabin became a beloved gathering place for family members and friends from around the country. While David continued to attend medical conferences and go on recruiting trips for USUHS from time to time, he was able to spend many enjoyable hours fishing, hiking, kayaking, playing piano, and, above all, riding his bicycle on the roads around Island Park and in Washington, Utah, where David and Lindy had their winter home. David was a longtime bike commuter and recreational cyclist, and he continued to log between five and six thousand miles per year on his bicycle until falling ill last summer.

David is survived by his wife, Lindy; by his sisters, Becky Koldewyn and Penny Belton; by his children, Bart Welling, Matt Welling, and Cassandra Hancock; and by ten grandchildren: Bart's children, Autumn and Solstice, Orion, Chora Belle, and Patrick, and Cassandra's children, James, Andrew, Christopher, Kat, and Jack.

A memorial service for David will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, August 24 at the Island Park building of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (4120 Big Springs Loop, Macks Inn, Idaho).

Donations in David's memory to the charity of one's choice would be appreciated by the family.