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Dr. Cyril Wiggishoff

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Former long-time Fountain Hills resident Cyril Wiggishoff passed away peacefully at home in Scottsdale Friday evening, Feb. 20, 2015. He just failed to awaken from his afternoon nap.

He had not been well since a diagnostic procedure in August and was under the care of Hospice of the Valley since November.

Cyril is survived by his wife, Marianne; a son, Nic; and a daughter, Michele; and three grandchildren.

Born in Paris on March 17, 1923, Cyril Wiggishoff was raised from the age of five in South Africa, where he lived with his aunt and uncle after his father died in the Spanish Civil War. Education was very important to his aunt and uncle and reading was “an approved activity.” He developed a life-long passion for books remembers going by himself to Adams Bookstore in Durban, South Africa, to purchase his very own book when he was 10.

When he was 17, Cyril’s uncle informed him that “there was a war on” and that Cyril was to become a doctor. So he studied at medical school in Johannesburg for two years.

At the age of 19, he enlisted as an able seaman in the South African Navy, where his first crew assignment was on a 750-ton Norwegian whaling vessel that had been adapted to war purposes. Later, he attended Officers’ School and, after being commissioned as a sub-lieutenant, volunteered for submarine service. He was sent to Britain to attend a submarine course in 1944. Upon graduation, he was assigned to the Seventh Submarine Squadron at Rothesay, Scotland.

At the end of the WW II, completion of his medical training once again became a priority. He applied and was accepted at Oxford in England, and completed his training there in 1950. In the late 1950s, Dr. Wiggishoff came to the University of Illinois in Chicago under a Fulbright Fellowship.

He returned to private practice in Johannesburg, but soon realized that Chicago was where he wanted to continue his career in surgery. He spent 23 years as Chief of Staff at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Chicago, as a world renowned surgeon, and at the same time, was appointed a Clinical Associate Professor of Urology at the University of Chicago.

Dr. Wiggishoff and his wife Marianne moved to Fountain Hills in 1987 from Chicago. During their years in Fountain Hills, they were very civically involved. Marianne served on the Town Council and Cyril served as president of the Library Association (Friends of the Library), and has always belonged to many societies of note.

A celebration of his life is being planned in the old style of Cyril later in the spring. The family is grateful to Hospice of the Valley for its caring support and would suggest donations in lieu of flowers.