A humble servant with a joyful heart

Paul A. Busam, M,D,A great friend of CCL was laid to rest today.

Paul A. Busam, M.D. passed away at the age of 90 on December 30. He was a long-time friend of CCL co-founders John and Sheila Kippley, and served as the Chairman of the CCL Board of Directors for 25 years, from 1974-1999. He actively served on the board for several additional years, but even as he stepped his involvement back, he remained a member emeritus until his death.

Dr. Busam was a family practice physician in Cincinnati who loved his faith, his family and his patients. He especially had a heart for babies and breastfeeding, and was a long-time member of the Medical Advisory Board of La Leche League International. It was at a LLLI conference in 1971 that the Kippleys and Dr. Busam met for the first time, as Sheila was speaking on a panel about breastfeeding infertility with Dr. Busam and Dr. Konald A. Prem (who assisted the Kippleys in founding CCL). Dr. Busam was a devout Catholic physician who remained faithful to the Church’s teaching against unnatural birth control despite the capitulation of so many other physicians in the wake of Humanae Vitae.  He and his late wife, Rose, were among several couples who taught natural family planning at a clinic at Cincinnati’s Good Samaritan Hospital, and when the Kippleys moved from Minnesota to Cincinnati in the early 1970s, it allowed for a perfect partnership to be formed as Dr. Busam generously gave of his time and talents to help the Kippleys grow the CCL apostolate over the next several decades. Dr. Busam was also a great supporter and promoter of ecological breastfeeding because of the many benefits to both mother and baby, and its natural child spacing effects. At CCL, we are grateful for his selfless giving to further NFP, but will also miss his joyful faith, keen intellect, quick wit and fondness for a good joke.

Dr. Busam is survived by four children and their spouses, 15 grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.

— Ann Gundlach
Editor