Wayne Leroy Attwood

Wayne LeRoy Attwood passed away peacefully on December 1, 2023 in Sacred Heart Medical Center, the same hospital where he had cared for countless others during his 31-year career as a Doctor of Internal Medicine. He was held in the arms of family and surrounded by the love of his community.

Wayne was born January 28, 1929 to William LeRoy Attwood and Della Woolsey Attwood in Smith Center, Kansas. Here, he attended grade school and high school during the height of the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. From a young age, he worked in his father’s farm implements store to support his family during these lean years – an experience Wayne always credited for his lifelong frugality.

He received a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics from the University of Kansas, Lawrence, where Wayne met the love of his life, Helen Joyce “Joy” Nickell. Although Joy and Wayne both grew up in the same small town, it was here that they fell in love. Smitten from the beginning, Wayne proposed in early 1951 – just months before being drafted to serve in the Korean War.

After completing Army Basic Training, Wayne and Joy were married in Smith Center – the beginning of a union that would span 61 years.

His three years of military service left Wayne a staunch anti-war and social justice activist. Enrolling in KU Medical School on the G.I. Bill, he dedicated his life to caring for others. After finishing Medical School, he and Joy moved their growing family to Spokane, Washington, where they decided to build their new life. Around them and their children they wove a vibrant community drawing from Wayne’s world of medicine and Joy’s work as a well-known artist.

Wayne found his medical family with George Anderson and Robert Parker, colleagues that he always held in greatest esteem and practiced with for many years. As his career progressed, so too did his broader service to the community. As the President for Physicians for Social Responsibility he worked with the Hanford Education Action League (HEAL) to shut down the nuclear testing sites at Hanford and expose the impact of secret releases of radiation. At the same time, Wayne became an avid outdoorsman. His love of nature inspiring him to take his family on multi-day backpacking trips, summit Mt. Rainier, trek in the Himalayas and paddle 1,100 miles down the Back River in the remote Northwest Territories of Canada.

Despite his grueling work and community obligations, Wayne’s first priority always remained his family. He never shirked his responsibility as a father, and later as a grandfather and great-grandfather. In this, one love kept him going beyond all others: the love for his beautiful wife and life companion, Joy.

Wayne died bringing peace to those around him, caring for others, and fearlessly looking to the next adventure. We will miss him with all our hearts and carry his memory forward into every new day.

He is survived by his family which was always his proudest legacy: his three children Lynn Attwood, Michele Attwood, and Denise Attwood (spouse Ric Conner); five grandchildren, Kira Attwood (spouse Justin Becker), Amy Attwood, Brian Attwood (spouse Kaitlin Attwood), Emily Attwood, and Cameron Attwood Conner; and three great-grandchildren, Owen, Lila Joy, and Mason LeRoy.

A memorial service for Wayne will be announced in the coming months. Donations, in lieu of flowers, may be made to the Spokane Symphony, the Unitarian Universalist Church of Spokane, and the Conscious Connections Foundation’s Joy Attwood College Scholarship Fund.