Dr. Eric David Austad

Eric David Austad, M.D. died on June 2, 2024 due to complications from cancer. As in life, he was surrounded by his loving family. He was born in Biloxi, Mississippi, on October 4, 1944. His parents, Marjorie and Myron “Ted” Austad, were Wisconsin natives, living in Mississippi for a few years during his father’s military service with the Army Air Force. The family returned to the Midwest after the war, first to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin, and soon afterward to Escanaba, Michigan. His father was a sales representative for Abbott Laboratories and his mother was a caring and supportive housewife. His only sibling and beloved friend, Mary Kathryn (Austad) Grzyb, was born soon after the family’s move to Michigan. She survives, as do nieces, nephews, and many cousins.

Entering the University of Michigan in 1962 with several scholarships, he was accepted to the University’s Medical School after three years. There he met his future wife, Carol (Campbell) Austad, M.D., who was a medical school classmate. They married on June 7, 1969, the day after their medical school graduation, and continued a loving and adventuresome union until Carol’s death on July 4, 2013. They moved to New Orleans for their internships and lived together on Oahu for a year during Eric’s Navy tour, but returned to Ann Arbor for the remainder of their medical training and professional lives. Carol became a psychoanalyst, certified in both child and adult psychoanalysis, while Eric became a plastic surgeon. Their only child, Nissa Kristine Austad, was born in 1981 and remained their most treasured gift. She resides in Ann Arbor with her husband, Drew Reichenbach, and their twins, Anika and Iain Austad. Eric and Carol were both present for the birth of the twins in 2010, a thrilling high point of their lives together.

Dr. Austad became a Board-certified plastic surgeon in 1981. He received his medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1969, followed by an internship with LSU at Charity Hospital of New Orleans. He then completed a total of six years of residency training in General Surgery, Neurosurgery, and Plastic Surgery at the University of Michigan. His medical training was interrupted by a two-year tour of duty with the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, where he served as the medical officer aboard a nuclear submarine in the Pacific for a year, followed by a year’s tour with a Marine fighter squadron based on Oahu. He had a strong commitment to research, with many publications in peer-reviewed journals and frequent invited presentations at scientific meetings. In the ‘80's he pioneered the concept of tissue expansion and published the first laboratory-based studies of this technique, now used in reconstructive surgery worldwide. In the ‘90’s he was very involved with the medicolegal aspects of silicone safety, particularly as they related to breast implants. His frequent expert testimony at trials throughout the country helped establish the basic safety of those devices, which remain in wide use worldwide. After 2008 he worked exclusively with the Michigan Head Pain and Neurology Institute, specializing in the treatment of head pain related to trauma and/or nerve-related disorders of the head and neck. He retired in 2020. He was a past president of Michigan’s state society of board-certified plastic surgeons, a former chairman of the Department of Plastic Surgery at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor, a Clinical Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Michigan, and a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and many other professional organizations.

A funeral service will be held at 1:00 PM on Friday June 7, 2024 at Beth Israel Congregation of Ann Arbor (2000 Washtenaw Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48104). The family has requested that, in lieu of flowers, donations be made to Allen Creek Preschool of Ann Arbor (2350 Miller Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48103 or https://www.allencreek.org/).