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Michael Rhodes, MD, FACS, passed away at Valley View Retirement Community in Belleville, Pennsylvania, on Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2026, after a lengthy illness. Born Nov. 23, 1943, in Lewistown, Dr. Rhodes was the son of the late Dr. Luther Valentine Rhodes Jr. and Dorothy Edna Burkholder Rhodes, affectionately known within the family and throughout the community as King and Queen.
Dr. Rhodes grew up in Lewistown as one of nine children in a close-knit family. From his father, a beloved hometown optometrist known for his kindness and compassion, Dr. Rhodes learned to look for the goodness in every person and to treat people with respect. From his mother, he learned that everyone deserved to be treated with grace and dignity. Those lessons remained with him throughout his life and became inseparable from the physician, teacher and leader he would become.
After graduating from Lewistown High School in 1961, he graduated from Pennsylvania State University in 1965, after which he received his medical degree from Hahnemann Medical College in 1970, graduating as valedictorian of his class. He began his surgical training in Allentown before serving his country.
From 1972 to 1974, Dr. Rhodes served as a Captain in the United States Army at Reynolds Army Hospital, Fort Sill, Okla., an experience he valued both personally and in his development as a physician and surgeon. He was proud to follow his father, an Army veteran of World War II, into military service and to share that tradition with his brothers Pat and Chuck, who served in the United States Navy. Throughout his life, Dr. Rhodes retained a deep respect and profound appreciation for the service and sacrifice of veterans and their families. After leaving the Army, he returned to Allentown to continue his surgical training.
From 1977 to 1978, Dr. Rhodes completed a fellowship in traumatology and critical care at the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services in Baltimore, where he trained in the pioneering trauma-care environment created by Dr. R Adams Cowley. The experience helped shape Dr. Rhodes' conviction that lessons learned in treating the most severely injured could be translated into organized systems capable of saving lives in civilian communities.
In 1978, Dr. Rhodes became Chief of the Division of Trauma and Surgical Critical Care at Lehigh Valley Hospital, a position he held until 1995. During those years, he helped build a trauma program that became a model of coordinated emergency and critical care. His work contributed to the designation of Lehigh Valley Health Network as Pennsylvania’s first Level I Trauma Center and to the establishment of the region’s MedEvac helicopter program.
Dr. Rhodes understood that the best trauma care was never the work of a single physician. Saving a life required a coordinated team whose members brought different skills, talents, and expertise – from first responders, EMTs, paramedics and flight crews to nurses, physicians, surgeons and many others. He became a strong advocate for this multidisciplinary approach, recognizing and valuing the contribution each person brought to the care of the patient. Through his leadership, teaching, research and national work in trauma care, that philosophy reached far beyond the teams he personally led and left an enduring mark on the way trauma care is organized and delivered in the United States and elsewhere.
That broader impact was reflected in Dr. Rhodes' many national leadership roles. He served as President of the Eastern Association for the Surgery of Trauma and Vice President of the American Association for the Surgery of Trauma, and held significant leadership responsibilities with the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma. He held the rank of Professor of Surgery at Pennsylvania State University and Thomas Jefferson University during his career.
In 1995, Dr. Rhodes became Chairman of the Department of Surgery at Christiana Care Health System in Delaware, where he continued his work as a surgeon, teacher, mentor and medical leader. Throughout his career, he trained and influenced generations of physicians, surgeons, nurses and other healthcare professionals.
Dr. Rhodes was also a prolific teacher and scholar. He was an editor of The Trauma Manual, authored or co-authored numerous scientific articles and book chapters, and delivered more than 200 invited lectures and presentations. His contributions were recognized with numerous honors, including the Trauma Achievement Award of the American College of Surgeons Committee on Trauma, the Curtis P. Artz Award of the American Trauma Society, the Pennsylvania Governor's Highway Safety Award, and multiple Teacher of the Year awards from the Lehigh Valley Hospital Surgical Residency Program.
The full measure of Dr. Rhodes' career, however, cannot be found in titles, publications or awards. It resides in the many lives he saved directly as a surgeon and in the countless others touched indirectly through the trauma systems he helped build, the physicians and other professionals he taught, the teams he led, the research and guidelines he helped advance, and the standards of care he worked throughout his career to improve.
Despite his professional accomplishments, Dr. Rhodes was humble and possessed a wonderful sense of humor. He was also a devoted fitness enthusiast and was well known to family and friends as a “gym rat.”
Music was one of Dr. Rhodes' great joys throughout his life. A talented musician who played multiple instruments, he shared his love of music with his family, making music an enduring source of joy and connection throughout his life.
Dr. Rhodes is survived by his former wife, Judith Bearley, and their children Michael, Mary Ann, and Stephen; and by his wife, Patricia Rhodes, and their children Casey and Kathleen. He is also survived by six grandchildren, three great- grandchildren, and one great-great-grandson. He is also survived by his brothers Dr. Luther V. “Pat” Rhodes III, Charles “Chuck” Rhodes, Daniel “Danny” Rhodes and Stephen “Skip” Rhodes, and his sisters Adelaide Rhodes Ryan and Sylvan “Shorty” Rhodes Norris. He was predeceased by his sisters Ednilou Rhodes Reeder and Mary Frances “Babe” Rhodes Null.
Arrangements are under the care of Heller-Hoenstine Funeral Home, Woodlawn, 200 N. Main St., Lewistown, Visitation will be held on Sept. 21, 2026, at 11 a.m., followed by a memorial service at 1 p.m.
In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in the name of Dr. Michael Rhodes to the George E. Moerkirk Emergency Medical Services (EMS), 2100 Mack Blvd., First Floor, Allentown, PA 18103, benefiting Eastern Pennsylvania EMT and paramedic programs and trauma education for physicians and nurses.