Wilbur Gene Sandbulte was born early Christmas morning in 1942 on the Sandbulte family farm northwest of Sioux Center, Iowa.

From an early age, “Web” was a gifted singer and an exceptional athlete. With friends from Sioux Center High School, he formed the quartet Four of A Kind, which recorded an album and was featured on the Ted Mack Amateur Hour broadcast in New York City.

As a sophomore, he started on the Sioux Center Warriors basketball team, which won the 1959 Iowa State High School Basketball Tournament. The buzzer-beating win—more thrilling than anything depicted in the movie Hoosiers—included Web’s game-tying 12-foot baseline fadeaway jumper in the final minute.

Web attended Iowa State University on an athletic scholarship, playing varsity basketball for four years and varsity baseball for two years. After graduating, he applied to the University of Iowa medical school. Initially waitlisted, he explored becoming a minister. But soon after, he was admitted off the waitlist. He liked to joke that this was God’s way of saying, “Thanks, but no thanks.”

After graduating from medical school during the Vietnam War, Web enlisted and was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force. He rose to the rank of Captain and served as a flight surgeon for an F-4 Phantom fighter squadron based in Thailand. In addition, he trained as a back-seater and flew flak suppression missions along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

After discharge, Web returned to the U.S. and interned in the emergency department of a San Francisco hospital, where he treated a red-haired California art teacher named Leslie Sachs for a concussion. Nine months later, in 1973, Web and Leslie were married in Indianapolis, where he began a hand surgery fellowship.

They later moved to the suburbs of Seattle and raised two sons, Josh and Zach. Web spent decades as a hand surgeon in Auburn, Washington, where he was known for an easy bedside manner, good-natured teasing of the OR nurses, and his unwavering love of bran muffins.

While he was devoted to only one woman, Web was notably fickle with his cars. At one point, Leslie observed that they had gone through more cars than years of marriage together. Web had a soft spot for Porsches and any deal from his brother-in-law's Chevy dealership in Sioux Center.

Soft-spoken and quick to laugh, Web attracted a wide circle of friends. He particularly enjoyed his investment partners and talking on the phone about their sushi restaurant and cattle businesses. In moments of adversity, he was levelheaded and sought to do the right thing.

A man of quiet, steadfast faith, Web was a longtime member of University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, particularly involved with UW campus ministries led by the late Denny Rydberg. He also sang in the choir, meaning all Sandbulte family vacations ended by Saturday night. After retiring and moving to Scottsdale, Web and Leslie joined Valley Presbyterian Church, where he was active in a men’s Bible study group.

Web enthusiastically supported Leslie’s successful painting career and enjoyed attending her art show openings in galleries across the country. They surrounded themselves with art; their home was warm and welcoming for friends and family.

After devoting his life to a career in medicine, Web received excellent care in turn. He faced down Alzheimer’s disease with compassionate care from doctors, nurses, and caregivers at the Barrow Institute in Phoenix and Arbor Acres United Methodist Retirement Community in Winston-Salem.

He is preceded in death by his parents Bernard Sandbulte and Rena Rensink Remmerde. He is survived by his wife Leslie Sandbulte; his sons Joshua and Dr. Zachary Sandbulte; their spouses Tracey Strauss and Dr. Jennifer Sandbulte; and five treasured grandchildren: Nora, Hannah, Harper, George and Anne Lile.

After going off to war more than fifty years ago, Web never again lived in Iowa. But his pride in his Dutch heritage and his deep sense of place meant Sioux Center, Iowa, was always a central part of who he was. Laid to rest there on April 26th, he has now returned.

A memorial service will be held on May 24th at 2pm at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona.