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Frank R. Barta, Jr.
June 3, 1940 - October 15, 2023
Details regarding Frank’s memorial service at Arlington National Cemetery will be publicized when they become available.
Dr. Frank R. Barta, Jr., 83, of Los Angeles CA passed away peacefully October 15, 2023 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He had been a patient at Garden Crest Rehabilitation Center and more recently CHA Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital where he had been on staff as a board-certified orthopedic surgeon for many years before his retirement. He was past president of the Hollywood Academy of Medicine.
Frank was born the eldest child of Mildred (Ware) and Dr. Frank R. Barta, Sr. in Detroit, Michigan in 1940. He was raised in the Dundee neighborhoods of Omaha, Nebraska where he attended St. Margaret Mary’s grade school, Creighton Prep where he was a National Merit Finalist, and Creighton University from which he graduated in 1962 with a BA in philosophy, on scholarship.
Afterwards, Frank followed in his father’s footsteps, going from Creighton University to Johns Hopkins Medical School, with internship at New York Cornell Hospital and subsequent residencies in general surgery in New York, as well as orthopedics in Norfolk, Virginia and New York, respectively after military service. While practicing medicine in Los Angeles, Frank earned a law degree from Loyola Law School of Loyola Marymount University.
Frank entered military service as a general surgeon in the Army medical corps at the rank of Captain in New York NY, August 10, 1969. He served in Vietnam where he earned the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, the Soldiers Medal for volunteering for a rescue mission while on field deployment in Plei Djereng, the Combat Medical Badge, the Vietnam Campaign Medal, 2 O/S Bars, and the Bronze Star. He resigned from the Army at the rank of Major at Fort Dix, New Jersey, August 9, 1971. He belonged to American Legion Post 43 in Los Angeles for many years, where he enjoyed lively conversation at social gatherings with other veterans of military service.
Frank was the eldest of six siblings. Like his father, Frank had an eclectic and inquisitive mind, a prodigious memory, and strong opinions. He was a stellar student, with little apparent effort, and grew up in a house with a library and abundant reference works, literary classics, tomes in philosophy and psychology, as well as myriad medical and nutrition journals, and favored magazines like Popular Mechanics, and Electronics Illustrated to feed his curiosity.
From an early age Frank mastered whatever struck his interest, whether Lionel train layouts, chemistry sets, cameras, photography and photo development, amateur radio, telescopes and astronomy, or, later on, learning how to fly and maintain his precious second-hand Mooney, which he bought for $11,000 in 1971 after receiving training and earning a pilot’s license while stationed near McQuire Air Force base in New Jersey. He loved taking things apart, then putting them back together, in order to know how they worked. After law school Frank became interested in economics and was doing research for a book on the subject.
Frank is survived by a far flung family of five siblings (twin sisters and three younger brothers): Carol Barta Schutz and her husband Pierre of Strasbourg, France; Dr. Nancy Barta-Smith of Grove City Pennsylvania; Richard Barta of Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; Matthew Barta and his wife Monna of Brandon, Florida; and Michael Barta and his wife Nancy Hill Barta of Fairfield Glade, Tennessee, along with numerous cousins, nieces, nephews, grandnieces, and grandnephews. Frank was preceded in death by his parents, his brother Thomas Gregory who passed shortly after birth, and his grandparents Anna and Rudolph J. Barta and Nancy Boice and Richard Samuel Ware.
The Barta family wishes to acknowledge its deep gratitude to the management and staff at The Hollywood Ardmore Apartments where Frank lived for many years, to members of American Legion Post 43, to the management and staff at Garden Crest Rehabilitation Center, and especially to Frank’s friend Luis Muralles for their efforts on Frank’s behalf, particularly during the Covid pandemic and in the final months of his illness.
For those wishing to memorialize Frank’s life, donations may be made in his name to the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research. Details regarding Frank’s memorial service at Arlington National Cemetery will be publicized when they become available.