William Warner Kirby MD

December 28, 1947 – April 18, 2020

Auburn, CA, Mayor Bill Kirby, a devoted father, grandfather, physician, and community benefactor, died tragically in a single-engine plane crash in Auburn on April 18. His decades-long love of piloting his own plane was consistent with the free-spirited yet purposeful life he led for 72 years.

The second of five sons born to John Kenneth Kirby and Sarah Elizabeth Crouch in Illinois, he was a consistent overachiever who rarely stayed still. Bill was competitive in sports as a youth, manager of a campus bookstore in medical school, chief of medical staff and surgery at area hospitals during a surgical career that lasted until the day he died, a three-term member of the Auburn City Council, and an inveterate reader of two books weekly throughout his adult life.

Bill excelled in swimming at AAU meets throughout Texas as a teen, and his medley relay team held a national and world record for a summer. He excelled in the breaststroke, winning many first-place medals and trophies. He also was an excellent baseball player as a hitter and catcher. He played football at Taft High School in Woodland Hills, CA, where he met his longtime best friend, Craig (Corky) Hayes.

After getting his undergraduate degree in bacteriology at UCLA, Bill earned a master’s in microbiology at California State University, Long Beach, and his MD at Case Western Reserve University Medical School. He completed his internship at Stanford University and his residency in urology at U.C. Davis, where he finished as the chief resident.

While a resident at U.C. Davis, he gained national attention for blowing the whistle on problems with the Medical Center's kidney transplant program, triggering an investigative news series in The Sacramento Bee.

Bill seemed to have nearly total recall of the wide array of books and articles he read. He would debate any subject, especially politics or religion, and knew the arguments as if he had lived them. Bill loved working with his hands and helping others with their mechanical projects. He built and rebuilt a variety of vehicles during his lifetime, including a number of fire engines and other antiques.

He married Rebecca LaVally in 1975 and together they had daughter Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez, who lives in West Sacramento with husband Adam Gonzalez and Bill's beloved granddaughters, Addison and Chloe. Bill later married Therese Leonard, with whom he had son James Warner Kirby, now an attorney in Los Angeles. Bill also was married for six years to Rose Elgert. Sarah, a fifth-grade teacher, followed in her father’s footsteps of public service, winning election to the Washington Unified School District (West Sacramento) Board of Trustees in 2011 and reelection twice.

Raising his children in Auburn and practicing urology, Bill plunged into nearly four decades of volunteer and financial support for the community he loved, becoming a constant presence in almost all aspects of civic life – from athletics to the arts to social service organizations and local elected office.

In 2002, Bill ran for Congress, losing in the Republican primary to incumbent Rep. John Doolittle. He later won a seat on the Auburn Recreation District Board and most recently was in his 12th year on the Auburn City Council. He served two stints as mayor, the post he held at the time of his death.

Bill spent Saturdays working at “Virgil’s Community Garden,” where the Auburn Rotary Club raised vegetables for donation to local food closets. Daughter Sarah recounts that Bill jokingly called the garden his church, though he was a generous supporter of the construction of St. Teresa of Avila Church. He carved turkeys every Thanksgiving with his fellow Rotarians. He gave out free popcorn to kids at Auburn Outdoor Movie Nights. He was a coach and board member of Auburn Little League for seven years, four of them as board president. If you hiked the Auburn trails, you probably saw him and likely were greeted with a big hello or given other cheerful encouragement as you passed by.

He founded Auburn's “Let’s Never Forget Series” (http://letsneverforgetseries.org), which sponsors community-awareness campaigns and speakers on historical subjects such as the Holocaust and Japanese internment. Through his contributions to the Let's Never Forget Foundation, Bill commissioned Peter Hazel’s magnificent “Celebration of the Confluence” sculpture, which sits in Auburn’s Central Square. He previously gifted the city a mural for the Central Square Art Park, and was an enthusiastic supporter of downtown’s two-year-old “Music Around Town” program, providing live outdoor music every Friday and Saturday night throughout the summer. “He was, bar none, the best supporter and promoter of making Auburn fun and lively and beautiful -- and thoughtful, with his Let's Never Forget program,” recalls April Maynard, chair of the local Arts Commission.

In his medical practice, Bill had served as Chief of the Medical Staff at Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital and Chief of Surgery at Roseville Community Hospital. He had been chairman of the Tumor Board at Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital, the Institutional Review Committee at Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital, and the Pharmacy Committee at Roseville Community Hospital. He received the Healthcare of the Year Award in 2010 at the Auburn State of the Community Dinner and was currently on the Board of Directors of the Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital Foundation as well as the Roseville Community Hospital Foundation. He worked for Woodland Clinic Medical Group and had surgical privileges at Woodland Memorial Hospital in Yolo County. Bill was in contact with his patients there the morning of his death.

Bill was loved by patients, nurses and other associates for his devotion to community health and medicine. His children remember the joy he took in serving his patients when, as young children, they had to run to keep up with him as he made his rounds on Saturday mornings. He was a volunteer physician for the local homeless shelter and also worked with Flying Doctors of America, an international medical aid organization.

Bill served as the team physician for Placer High School in Auburn for 37 years, earning a place in the school's Athletic Hall of Fame. He was a physician on the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run for 17 years and received the Friend of the Trail award in 1990. He was a member of the Auburn Rotary and a multiple Paul Harris Fellow.

In addition to son James and daughter Sarah, and her children, Bill is survived by younger brothers Steve Kirby and Robert Kirby and an extended network of nieces and nephews. Bill lived for his children, grandchildren, family and friends and loved them all fiercely.

Bill’s family is planning a community celebration of life later in the year, when social-contact restrictions caused by the coronavirus outbreak are relaxed. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, tax-deductible contributions be made in Bill's name to any of the following three causes.

1. A scholarship fund is being set up for graduating seniors at Placer High School.

Checks can be made out to “Dr. Bill Kirby PHS Scholarship Fund,” 3257 Professional Dr STE D, Auburn, CA 95602.

2. Auburn Arts Commission: Checks can be made out to the City of Auburn with "Arts Commission" in the memo line, 1225 Lincoln Way, Auburn, CA 95603.

3. Flying Doctors of America: https://fdoamerica.org/donations.