Dr. Donald D. Purdy, at times the only doctor serving residents of Whidbey Island between 1954 and 1976, died Wednesday in Seattle, according to his family. He was 83.

When he arrived, South Whidbey had a population of 4,000, and babies were born either in his small office in Langley (one by lantern light, because of a power failure, his family said), or after a ferry ride to an Everett hospital.

There was no hospital on Whidbey until 1968, so house calls were common. Wounds and broken bones were stitched and set in his office or out behind the barn where the injury occurred.

He made house calls at all times of the night, searching for mail boxes hidden among the thick firs on dirt roads with a spotlight he had mounted on his car.

He later moved to Georgia to run an MD residency program, then returned to West Seattle, running a private practice until 1997.