Walter C. Cotter ’45

Walter C. Cotter ’45, of Stuart, Fla.; Oct. 27. He attended Boston University before entering the U.S. Navy during World War II. Following his military service, he resumed his premedical education at Brown, then attended medical school at Tufts University. He returned to Rhode Island to begin a long career as a physician, working on the staff of several Rhode Island hospitals. In the final two decades of his surgical practice, he assumed a leading role in the development and leadership of the neurosurgical center at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Providence and was named chief of neurosurgery at both St. Joseph’s and Kent County hospitals. He was frequently called upon by local media to provide medical insights, notably on Vinnie “Paz” Pazienza and the death of Robert F. Kennedy. He was named president of both the Rhode Island and New England neurosurgical societies and was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. He retired in 1995. He is survived by his wife, Mary; six children and their spouses, including daughter Betsy Wisehart ’81 and son David ’77; 15 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.