William Warren Babson Jr.

Montrose - William Warren Babson Jr., a distinguished general, vascular and hand trauma surgeon passed away peacefully at age 85 on May 14, 2025, in Montrose, CA. Dr. Babson dedicated his life to the healing arts, touching countless lives with his exceptional diagnostic and technical skill, compassion and unwavering commitment to his patients.
Known as Jack, he was born at the Addison Gilbert Hospital on December 10, 1939, along with his twin sister, Jill. Their birth introduced the 12th generation of Babsons on Cape Ann. Jack attended Gloucester Public Schools, earning a Sawyer Free Medal as a sophomore and graduating Valedictorian of the class of 1957. He played football, hockey and tennis during his four years — but it was as a senior, in 1956, positioned as center on Coach Nate Ross' single-wing offensive Championship Football Team, that he and his squad experienced the thrill of their young lives. They were invited to the Orange Bowl in Miami to match off against another championship single-wing offensive high school team.
For Jack, growing up on Cape Ann meant being outdoors in every season. Winter afternoons scrimmaging on the Sheep Pond behind the Murray homestead on Dennison Street, and walks out to the family duck camp across the frozen creeks of the Essex marshes to hunker down with his Dad in a camouflaged 'blind', waiting for a coot or teal or Canada goose to alight on the open water pond hole. Later in life, it wasn't the duck hunting that drew him back , but the solitude and natural beauty of The Great Marsh, particularly in the fall with its myriad changes in color.
Summers were for sailing, swimming and digging clams on mudflats exposed at low tide where the Squam River bends towards Ipswich Bay. And always, the highly anticipated annual trip to the Maritime Provinces, to fish in legendary rivers for Atlantic Salmon.....on Maine's Narraguagus, the Miramichi in New Brunswick and the Grand Cordroy in Newfoundland.
But it wasn't until Jack joined the Dartmouth Outing Club his freshman in college that he encountered the full effects of a day spent hiking in northern New England's wilderness. It was his opportunity to develop a depth of knowledge and a skill-set that enabled him years later, at ages 50 and 60, to be a 'thru hiker on the Appalachian Trail, that 2,170-mile endurance test that takes six months to complete, from Springer Mt. GA to Maine's Mount Kahtadin. These two feats, a decade apart, were perhaps Jack's proudest accomplishments. They gave him, he said, a "confidence in self-power," a strength he taught his own children, Alice and Dan on their yearly family hikes through state and national parks across the country.
From his early years Jack displayed a love for music. He began piano lessons at eight under the tutelage of Gertrude Speck of Rockport. That he could "play by ear" — an innate ability to hear a piece of music and then repeat the chords — proved to be a source of intense pleasure throughout his life, a gift he freely shared wherever he found a piano. He would sit down and play for anyone, friend or stranger, convinced that music is a universal language, and as such is the most joyful way imaginable to make connections with those who also listen.
Jack grew up with the goal of becoming a doctor, graduating from Dartmouth College, Dartmouth Medical School's two-year program and Harvard Medical school.
Following a year of surgical internship at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond, he was commissioned a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve and posted to NahTrang, Vietnam attached to the 101st Air Borne Division. As medical support for his Division, the Army provided a Red Cross jeep and a driver with orders to visit outlying villages as part of a program intended to lower the high death rate among children from preventable deceases like Malaria and Malnutrition. Although the villagers welcomed the doctors once they understood the purpose of their visits, rogue bands of Vietcong threatened and often did burn the settlements, if the army doctors returned. This cruel reality of warfare disturbed Jack deeply, causing him to distrust a military approach to solving international conflict.
The photograph attached to this obituary appeared on the front page of the US Army's newspaper, Stars and Stripes. It was later published on the front page of the Gloucester Daily Times. Jack was awarded a Bronze Star for heroic achievement during one of these trips. Their jeep rolled off a small bridge into the shallow river below. Jack was thrown clear, but his driver was pinned under the car's body. By using his hands to dig deep into the stream's muddy bottom, the jeep rose just high enough to allow Jack to pull the driver clear of the jeep.
Returning from Vietnam Jack reported to U.S. Army Kirk Hospital at Aberdeen Proving Ground in Maryland, where he fell in love with his future wife, Capt. Annie Laurie Stuart of Montrose, CA. Subsequently he completed his surgical residency at the Medical College of Virginia, his final year as Chief Resident.
The Babson's moved to Plymouth, MA in 1972 where Jack established a private practice in general surgery, eventually concentrating on vascular, hand and trauma procedures. On the medical staff at the Jordan Hospital in Plymouth, Jack served as Chief of Surgery and Chief of Staff, during his 32 years of service to his community. He was a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a member of The New England Surgical Society.
At 64, weary of the state of American medicine, —he called it "broken" — Jack retired, and he and Annie Laurie headed to Maine. They bought a house in Sinclair, a hamlet barely big enough to support a general store and post office. But the house had a screened-in porch cantilevering over Long Lake, a pristine water body teeming with bird and marine life. The 'good doctor' had found what he craved—a paradise of solitude open wide to the natural world — wide enough, too, to share with Annie Laurie and Turbo, his Brittany.
Jack is survived by his wife, their two children, Alice Stuart Babson and her partner Leo Curtin, and Daniel Kelly Babson and his wife, Mariya, two grandchildren, Aleksay and
Laurel Babson, a twin sister, Jill Carter, a brother Tom and his wife, Kelly, and many nieces, nephews and cousins. He was predeceased by a brother, David and his wife, Val.
In lieu of flowers the family requests donations be made to the Christ Episcopal Church Food Bank, or to another agency of one's choice. A Memorial Service to honor the legacy of Dr. William Warren Babson is planned for Saturday, July 12, 2025 at noon at Christ Episcopal Church Parish, 149 Court St, Plymouth, MA.