Roll Call Tribute

William Allison Guynes, Jr. 

May 5, 1938 - November 7, 2024 

Dr. William Allison Guynes, Jr. was born on May 5th, 1938. He was born in Mathis, TX to Rebecca Edmonds Guynes and Dr. William Allison Guynes. His father was the only physician and the mayor of that small south Texas town. He was the youngest of three children and enjoyed a carefree boyhood of front yard football and sandlot baseball, boy scouts, etc.

Allison’s love of sports continued and grew to near devotion as a cadet at Texas A&M University. There he was an exemplary student and became the Commanding Officer of H2, the premed/predent company, Class of 1960.

Allison earned his MD degree at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana, 1964. It was also at Tulane he met Catherine Donovan and they were married immediately following graduation. Then followed four years of Surgery Residency at Charity Hospital in New Orleans (affectionately referred to as the ‘Big Free’.)

After two years as Major in the United States Air Force at Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene Texas, Allison went in to private practice in Denton, Texas. That specialty did not offer the challenge he was seeking in medicine so he entered another residency program in Cardiovascular Surgery at Baylor hospital in Dallas, Texas. Four years later he entered a practice in Amarillo, Texas. There he met the challenge of a lifetime – open heart surgery. It was a very exciting time in Chest Surgery with the blossoming of the cardiac bypass procedure. He retired after 25 years of a very rewarding career in medicine. His beloved mentor Henry Martinez from Vallecitos New Mexico was an inspiration to Allison’s surgical practice and also instilled in him a calling for the Hispanic life of Northern New Mexico where he eventually retired after the 25 years in Amarillo.

Taos, New Mexico, became home to him and Catherine for another 25 years. There he undertook another engaging ‘occupation’ as a sheep rancher. He researched and found a breed of sheep developed in South Africa – Dorpers. His domain included sometimes 35-40 sheep, 2 Great Pyrennes guard dogs as well as a Border Collie ‘herder’. What a life: pastures, acequias, fences, tractors, many friends in that rural Hispanic community.

In 2023 he and Catherine moved to West Des Moines, Iowa in order to be near their son and family and easier access to medical care.

He died on November 7, 2024 after a years-long decline to Alzheimer Dementia. He is survived by Catherine, his wife of sixty years, a son, William Allison Guynes III and his wife Cathy, and their three sons, John Jigitz of New York and Los Angeles, Christopher Duncan and his wife Natalie of Des Moines, and William Trace Guynes of the home. His daughter Sarah Carr lives in San Angelo, Texas as well as his granddaughter Madison Carr.