Doc’s Pavilion

Dr. Robert Abel, a beloved fixture of Elkhart County, passed away at 92. He was known for his dedication to his patients, making house calls, and being involved in the community.

“Doc had time for everyone, and he was an incredibly generous person,” said Bill Sharpe, the former longtime head football coach at Jimtown High School, where Abel helped fund the first team and served as team doctor for decades. “The relationships he built up with people in the Elkhart County community are second to none.”

Abel practiced family medicine full-time at an office in Wakarusa and on staff at Elkhart General Hospital, delivering an estimated 10,612 babies, according to his obituary.

But he also spent decades serving the community as a board member for the Elkhart County 4-H Fair and Wa-Nee Community Schools, as medical director for Bashor Children’s Home and as team doctor for both Jimtown and NorthWood football teams.

“He worked until the end — it was his passion for his patients,” said one of his granddaughters, Molly Wilson. “I think in the end the only thing he would have been mad about is that he didn’t just keel over while he was working.”

To those who worked around Abel, his drive and influence seemed limitless. Fellow 4-H board members credited him with setting the course for the Elkhart County Fair to grow to the biggest county fair in the state and among the largest in the country. Those in the Wakarusa community saw him buy up unattractive vacant buildings and renovate them into new office and retail spaces.

“He was small in stature, but he cast a long shadow,” said former Elkhart Circuit Court Judge Terry Shewmaker, who served on the 4-H board with Abel for 35 years.

To others, he was the doctor who kept Sunday office hours to see patients who got sick on weekends, would make a midnight house call just because he was passing through the neighborhood on his way home or would hang around the office at 10 p.m. on Friday nights in case someone needed him to take a look at a football injury.

“He once told me he only got three hours of sleep a night,” said Steve Cook, a longtime patient and co-owner of Cook’s Pizza in downtown Wakarusa. “There’s no one else like him.”

Cook recalled how Abel brought Chicago Bears great Gale Sayers to speak at NorthWood, and how all the kids in town had an open invitation to go swimming at Doc’s pool in the summer. One would be hard-pressed to find somebody in Wakarusa without a Doc Abel memory, Cook said.

In one example, Jack Lengacher Sr. was snowed in with eight children in the house while his wife was sick with the flu during the blizzard of 1978. He knew who to call: Doc Abel.

A couple hours later, Abel showed up on a snowmobile, driven by Lengacher’s brother-in-law. The doctor walked in and dropped his medicine bag, along with three gallons of milk.

“He said, ‘you’ve been stuck here three days, I figure the least you could use is some milk,’ Lengacher said. “Rain or shine, he just got there.”

One of Abel’s grandsons, Andy Roeder, said his family cherished Wednesdays, when Abel would take the day off to spend time with the grandkids working on his tractor, eating watermelon or caring for their 4-H animals.

Moments of downtime were few and far between because Abel gave his time to others so generously, Roeder said.

“To help others, that was his mission in life,” Roeder said. “Sometimes it was a sacrifice for him and his family, so to know he made such an impact on the community is great.”