CUTV News Radio Spotlights Retired Plastic Surgeon Dr. David W. Furnas

Corona Del Mar, CA – Dr. David W. Furnas is a retired plastic surgeon and professor emeritus at University of California Berkeley and Davis.

The son of a Presbyterian minister, Dr. Furnas’s maternal grandfather taught him how to use hand tools. These talents gradually led him to become a physician and later surgeon.

“I had talent and there was a need,” recalls Dr. Furnas.

Dr. Furnas graduated from the University of California-San Francisco medical school in 1956 and interned in 1957 at the University of California Hospital under H. Glenn Bell, he was my chief, professor of surgery at University of California medical school.

While Dr. Furnas performed surgery on the whole body, he specialized in the face, head and neck. He also received special training in surgery of the hand from Dr. Adrian Flatt. Dr. Furnas was a member of the Hand Society as well as the American Association of Plastic Surgeons.

“I operated on the skin and its contents,” says Dr. Furnas. “That's how you face the world! But there's trauma and cancer and all kinds of problems people have within their skin.

Dr. Furnas and his wife Marylou, a surgical technician, traveled to operating rooms all over the world––Philippines, Sri Lanka, Scotland––teaching surgeons how to perform unusual cases like cleft lips, cleft palates and cranio-facial surgery.

Dr. Furnas’s daughter Heather inherited his talents. Today, she's a well-known plastic surgeon in her own right.

“The patient is number one,” says Dr. Furnas. “One does one's very best to serve the patient well. I’m most proud of all the people I've helped.”