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Bernard “Biff” Bueffel III ’66

January 15, 2021, in Portland.

Because he suffered from acute asthma as a child growing up in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, physicians encouraged Biff’s parents to move him to a drier climate. They moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Biff lived out his childhood and graduated from Sandia High School. At Reed, he wrote his thesis, “A Non-Optic Photoresponse in Ariolimax Columbianus, the Banana Slug,” advised by Prof. G.F. Gwilliam [biology 1957–96].

He returned to New Mexico for medical school at the University of New Mexico and then completed his residency at the University of Arizona. Under the Berry Plan, Biff returned to the Pacific Northwest and served three years in the U.S. Navy on Whidbey Island as one of two physicians. There he met his wife, Elaine, and they married in 1975. Their love of the Northwest led to making Portland their home. Biff started a pediatric practice, where for 37 years he worked his passion for caring for children and families.

He is survived by his wife, Elaine; his six children, Ashlea Barde, Leslie Jones, David Bueffel, Scott Bueffel, Elizabeth Dreith, and Amy Emory; and his sister, Janet Mount-Campbell.

Appeared in Reed magazine: September 2021