San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
Olgard ‘Olik’ Dabbert
January 23, 1931 - March 20, 2021
SAN DIEGO — Dr. Dabbert was a resident of San Diego for 56 years. He passed away March 20, 2021 in Point Loma, CA surrounded by loving family.
Dr. Dabbert was born in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the child of Herman Dabbert, a civil engineer, and Alexandra Dabbert, a dentist to the Court of the Emperor Haile Selassie.
Olik’s formative years were spent in Ethiopia and Italy. He wrote of childhood “LIFE was roaming the green fields, playing, hunting, racing, exploring and especially on weekends riding with family and friends to distant picnics by waterfalls and grassy hills.” Growing up while being exposed to war influenced his thinking throughout his life.
At 15 the family moved to Peru. Having already acquired fluency in English, Russian, German, French, and Italian he now learned Spanish. Olik attended University of San Marcos’s Pre-medical and Medical School, finishing first in his class. He then completed orthopedic training at Bellevue Hospital in New York and Duke University in NC.
Dr. Dabbert worked for two years at the VA in Oakland, CA. In 1965 he moved to San Diego and began a busy practice in Orthopedic Surgery as a member of Rees Stealy
Medical Group. He retired in 1996. Dr. Dabbert was on the editorial board and published many articles in “The San Diego Physician.”
Olik married Frances Thomason of Mountville, NC in 1963. She passed away in 1978. He married Betty Blitch Turberville of Homerville, GA in 1979. He and Betty traveled the world with family and friends.
Dr. Dabbert is survived by his wife Betty Dabbert, daughter Betty Iris Thompson, son in law Ray Thompson, and grandchildren Iris Thompson and Paul Thompson of San Diego, CA, Son Dayton Turberville, daughter in law Joya Schmidt, and grandchildren Eli Schmidt, Seth Schmidt, and Henry Olgard Turberville of Prescott, AZ.
In lieu of flowers the family asks that donations be given to First United Methodist Church of San Diego or Catholic Charities.
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