Two Arlington-area doctors with long-time ties to Arlington Memorial Hospital were honored by the Tarrant County Medical Society with its most prestigious awards.

The Heidelberg Catechism asks the question: What is your only comfort in life and in death? The answer: That I am not my own, but belong — body and soul, in life and in death — to my faithful Savior Jesus Christ. It is evident to all who spend more than a few minutes in his company that Dr. Deur, the 2003 recipient of the Tarrant County Medical Society Physician of the Year Award in Arlington, lives by this creed. Whether you are a patient, colleague, friend or simply an acquaintance, you sense a depth of compassion and service to others beyond the usual in this man.

As an oncologist caring for cancer patients and their families, Dr. Deur spends about one-third of his time — considerably more than many of us — dealing with end-of-life issues. Often a diagnosis of cancer brings the whole family to a crossroad. Because this disease is so feared and may require heroic efforts to fight and overcome, families are forced to face the disease, battle it and consider the possibilities of winning or losing all at once.

In the midst of this turmoil, Dr. Deur often becomes more than a physician providing care and bringing necessary community and health care resources together. He becomes a member of the family, sometimes even being asked to answer questions of faith and theology some of his patients may never have seriously considered before. He’s comfortable in this role. Perhaps his humble, soft-spoken manner gives more impact to what he has to say.

A family member of one of his patients observes, “It’s not an easy field to maintain your enthusiasm in since so much is unknown. Still, Dr. Deur doesn’t abandon patients just because he doesn’t have all the answers. He always communicates his concerns in an upbeat way. It’s because of professionals like Dr. Deur that information in the field is expanding. His field, faith and ministry are intertwined in what he does.”

On staff at Arlington Memorial Hospital for 24 years, Dr. Deur has served a leadership role on nine committees, including the executive committee, during his tenure. Since he opened his Arlington practice in 1980, he has also served in numerous leadership roles for the American Cancer Society.

Obviously, his fellow physicians who nominated him Physician of the Year hold him in high esteem. They describe him as a superior physician and an amazing person. “I am impressed with his sincerity and dedication. I have always been confident that the patients I have referred to him have received the highest degree of care and personal sensitivity. I would trust him with my family,” says James Harrington, M.D.

A vivid memory for Jerry Bane, M.D., a surgeon, is that of Dr. Deur and his grown children after his wife’s tragic death last year. Despite a devastating personal loss, he showed remarkable compassion, as did his children during the visitation for Debra at her memorial service. “They comforted, consoled and acted as ministers to those who attended. It showed such strength of character and commitment to serve other people even during a time of great grief,” Dr. Bane says.

Friends describe Dr. Deur as a fascinating person.His eyes sparkle with enthusiasm whether he is recounting details of various Civil War battles that he has studied, rare coins from antiquity or stamps, all avocations that interest him. At Shepherd of Life Lutheran Church, he has taught adult Bible study classes for 10 years and has taught another 20 years at various churches. He has also been instrumental in starting three other area Lutheran churches. He considers himself fortunate to have had exceptional role models throughout his life — among those his father, Julius, also a physician, and his mother, Mary Whittaker, a nurse. He is equally grateful for his children. George is a student at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. And his daughter, Juliana, is a senior architecture student at Washington University in St. Louis.

Mansfield pediatrician Robert W. Mann, M.D. was selected for the 2004 Physician Humanitarian Award for his exceptional community service above and beyond the normal scope of practice. Dr. Mann’s “community” is both local and worldwide.

Since he began his private pediatrics practice in Arlington in 1971, Dr. Mann has reached out to others. Volunteers and clients of Mission Arlington/Mission Metroplex and the Arlington Life Shelter know Dr. Mann for the clinic named for him. He’s on the board of the Allan Saxe Dental Clinic for the indigent and is medical consultant for the Arlington Independent School District.

Dr. Mann has served on Mission Arlington’s board since its formation and helped develop the clinic that bears his name. While practicing in Arlington, he would go to the Mission Arlington Clinic on his lunch hour at least three days a week and see clinic patients from the Women’s Shelter and the Arlington Life Shelter before returning to his office. He and his wife, Angie, still serve on the Mission Arlington/Mission Metroplex board, and he remains the clinic’s medical director.

“I don’t know where he gets his energy,” says Wilford Raine, M.D., an Arlington pediatrician. “He is one of the most compassionate people I’ve ever seen. He will see 40 or 50 patients a day in the office, then go to Mission Arlington to see another 30 or 40 kids.”

Following the Gulf War, the Texas Baptist Men mission organization asked him to go to the mountainous area of southern Turkey to treat the Kurds who had been forced out of their villages in northern Iraq. Dr. Mann had served the organization as a medical adviser, but now they wanted him to go care for thousands suffering from exposure, dehydration and dysentery.

“As I thought about it, I recalled the quote, ‘If not you, who? If not now, when?’,” explains Dr. Mann.

That was the beginning of four overseas trips. Days after he arrived at the snowy Kurdish refugee camps in Turkey, he was off to Iraq with U.S. and Dutch troops to continue ministering to children.

After returning to Arlington, Dr. Mann heard about seven Kurdish families in Fort Worth who needed help. He contacted Tillie Burgin from Mission Arlington, and together they secured housing in Arlington, got the children into school, and arranged English as a Second Language classes and jobs for the men. Dr. Mann still keeps in touch, and the men are still employed. Some of them own their own businesses.

Other mission trips followed. In the Ukraine, newly independent from the Soviet Union, Dr. Mann inventoried their hospital needs. A group had purchased equipment from a defunct hospital in Center, Texas, and he determined how to apportion the equipment among Ukrainian hospitals. He also arranged for three container shipments of rice.

Later, Dr. Mann enabled the mayor of a Ukrainian town and a 6-year-old Kosovar girl to come here for medical treatment.

With his adult son, Brad, he traveled to Albania to treat the Kosovar refugees. While Brad helped to build a cafeteria and dining hall and clean latrines, his father headed to the rural refugee camps. During his most recent trip to Thailand, Dr. Mann helped with less direct medical needs, building multipurpose buildings in two villages and piping fresh drinking water to concrete cisterns that they also built.

There are possible future trips to northern Thailand and Myanmar, formerly Burma. “Because it’s right” and “there are some things you can’t help but do” are the reasons Dr. Mann volunteers. He’s not content to just write a check. He recalls the life of Mother Teresa.

“We all know her as the nurse to the poor of India, but for the first 18 years she was a nun teaching English and geography. She got a second calling to treat patients. I was called to be a primary care physician, but my second calling is to use those skills to help the needy.”