Prolific orthopedic surgeon was proud of service in Vietnam
TED. K. ENCKE | Dec. 21, 1938 - July 27, 2015
Ted K. Encke was fresh from medical school in 1965 when gunfire ripped into his Vietnam combat flight, piercing his spine with pain that would return for decades.
That didn’t keep him from a second tour there, a battle-scarred prelude to his three-decade career as a prolific orthopedic surgeon in Allegheny County.
“He never claimed disability. He never claimed injury,” said his wife, Susan Encke. “He just lived with it.”
Dr. Encke, 76, died Monday from complications of a kidney stone, Mrs. Encke said. He died at their home in Fairhope, Somerset County, a retreat in the Allegheny Mountains that he built after his 1998 retirement from Steel Valley Orthopaedics.
“We joked that he went from sawing bones to sawing boards,” Mrs. Encke said. She estimated he performed more than 3,000 total hip replacements in his career, plus many more knee, shoulder and other procedures.
Dr. Encke was born in Norwalk, Conn. His family moved to Bethlehem, Pa., where he graduated from high school in 1956. He studied engineering before switching to biology at Moravian College in Bethlehem, then earned a medical degree from Temple University in Philadelphia.
By 1965, Dr. Encke had volunteered for the Air Force and duty in Vietnam. He served through 1967 as a chief of flight medicine, as a chief morgue officer and in other roles.
He developed prostate cancer after his exposure to Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant, but remained proud of his military service, his family said. He joined the Air Force Reserve for five years when he returned to the United States.
“Ted never felt he wasn’t appreciated,” said Mark Capozzi of North Huntingdon, a cousin of Mrs. Encke’s. He said Dr. Encke “was very happy to have served his country and very happy to say he was a Vietnam veteran.”
After active duty, Dr. Encke completed his residency in orthopedic surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and joined the Steel Valley practice. He and Mrs. Encke, the former Susan Chaklos, married June 3, 1978, at Heinz Chapel and settled in Churchill for 25 years.
Together they hunted big game in Africa, Canada and the Midwest. But even the Rocky Mountains, he once told Mr. Capozzi, have “nothing on the Laurel Mountains” where the couple retired.
“He may have subconsciously thought that by being in medicine, that was the way he could give back the most,” said Mr. Capozzi, who recalled Dr. Encke as a compassionate character. “His motivation was to make things better, to work, to help people, just to do the best he could.”
Visitation is scheduled for 6 to 8 p.m. today and 2 to 4 p.m. and 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday at the Patrick T. Lanigan Funeral Home, 1111 Monroeville Ave. at James Street, Turtle Creek.
A funeral is planned for 11 a.m. Friday at the funeral home, with burial and military honors to follow at Monongahela Cemetery.