CLERMONT — Kenneth Charles Bill was a doctor who loved his job and made it his lifestyle.
Bill was an old-school doctor, giving patients his home number and making house calls.
He delivered thousands of babies in south Lake County, sometimes generations within the same family.
“He liked people. He knew all his patients, knew what they did and how many kids they had and how many orange trees were in the backyard,” said Donna Bill, his wife of 36 years.
“Being a doctor is a lifestyle. He loved what he did and he loved it all his life.”
Bill died Tuesday, after a stroke. He was 88.
Kenneth Bill was born in Williams Bay, Wis., the son of a teacher and gentleman farmer.
Donna Bill said her husband knew he wanted to be a doctor from early in life.
His grandfather was a country doctor, and Kenneth Bill would often accompany him on calls.
Bill grew up in Genoa City, Wis., and graduated from the University of Wisconsin medical school in 1943.
He finished his internship in Milwaukee in 1944, where he was the first doctor in Milwaukee to give a penicillin shot, she said.
Bill went into the Army Medical Corps and served as a captain in the Pacific Theater from 1944 to 1947.
After he was discharged, he opened a family practice in Elkhorn, Wis.
In 1974 he moved to Clermont and worked at the Clermont Medical Center, and later as an emergency-room doctor for many years at South Lake Memorial Hospital.
“He delivered about 180 babies a year for most of his life,” Donna Bill said. “He was old-school and would get up in the night and take care of them. He didn’t take off the next day — he went to work.”
Kenneth Bill also became team physician for Clermont High School, from 1974 to 1993.
Donna Bill said they enjoyed traveling to the games and getting aquainted with the coaches and players.
After Hurricane Andrew hit South Florida in 1992, he traveled there for a pair of two-week stints as a doctor in the storm-ravaged areas.
Bill retired five times during his career. Once he was called back during Operation Desert Storm during the first Iraq war. Another time he left retirement to open a bookstore.
He and his wife opened a book shop at U.S. Highway 27 and State Road 50 in 1993.
Donna Bill said she knew he needed something to do after retirement, and he jumped at the chance to open the store. It closed in 1998.
Bill also came out of retirement to work at the South Lake Family Health Center in Groveland until 1998.
He and his wife also volunteered for the thrift store of the South Lake Animal League in downtown Clermont.
“It was such fun,” Donna Bill said. “We got to see everybody in town, and people are very generous. They bring so many things.”
The family is asking for donations to the South Lake Animal League instead of flowers. Visitation with the family will be from 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at Becker Funeral Home in Clermont.
