A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Friday at First United Methodist Church.
Gillespie established the Department of Anesthesiology at Scott & White Memorial Hospital in 1947 and served as its chairman for 26 years. He developed the first anesthesia residency program in Texas and mentored more than 100 residents.
An innovator in pain control techniques in the 1960s and 70s, Gillespie established Scott & White’s pain control clinic, one of the first of its kind in the state.
After retiring in 1981, he and his wife Estelle endowed the Gillespie Family Lectureship in Anesthesiology and Pain Control.
Gillespie received his medical degree in 1940 from the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston.
Enlisted as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps at the outbreak of World War II, Gillespie served as anesthesiologist and was instrumental in developing the Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) unit.
He was a member of the rapid-response neurosurgical team that supported the United States forces at Normandy during the D-Day invasion of France.
After the war, Gillespie completed a residency in anesthesia at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and a fellowship at Yale University.
Gillespie and his wife were involved in a People-to-People delegation of physicians to the former Soviet Union and China.
He was past president of the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists and a founding member and president of the Texas Medical Association’s 50-year Club. In 1986 he received the Texas Society of Anesthesiologists Founders Award.
Gillespie grew up in Bartlett on a dairy farm.
He was an active member of First United Methodist Church in Temple.
Gillespie was preceded in death by his wife in March 2001. He is survived by five children, five grandchildren and a brother.
Memorials may be made to Gillespie Family Lectureship, Scott & White Foundation, 2401 S. 31st St., Temple 76508; First United Methodist Chur
Visitation is 6-8 p.m. Thursday at Scanio-Harper Funeral Home.
