Robert Hepburn, the last sibling of actress Katharine Hepburn still alive, died of a heart attack Monday at Hartford Hospital, where he headed the urology department more than 30 years ago. He was 94.

The youngest brother of the film legend, Hepburn was one of six children of Katharine Houghton Hepburn, an early proponent for birth control, and Dr. Thomas Hepburn, the head of urology and chief of staff at Hartford Hospital whom Robert would emulate.

A graduate of Harvard Medical School in 1939, Hepburn took an internship at Hartford Hospital and began a residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1941, before being fast-tracked into service in the World War II Pacific theater in 1943. He was appointed chief of urology aboard the U.S.S. Repose, a naval hospital ship that served at the Battle of Okinawa, and later was stationed at Shanghai serving both the American and British navies.

After being discharged in 1946, he began practicing at Hartford Hospital, where he was known as a caring doctor who often did surgeries pro bono, once taking shoes as payment from a cobbler and a birdhouse from a woodworker, said his son-in-law Robert Kravitz.

"When he did his rounds, he spent an inordinate amount of time so that he could understand his patients well at the front end," Kravitz said.

Hepburn's political activism peaked during the Vietnam War, when he served as a lead delegate for anti-war presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy in 1968 and wrote several letters to The Courant, including one in 1967 contending that American policy in Vietnam "can never be accepted by Americans who remember their own history."

Hepburn retired from medicine in 1973, staying in a home in West Hartford along the Hart Meadow Brook. A man who once partied with Charlie Chaplin and flew in an airplane with Howard Hughes, Hepburn later moved in with his daughter Susanna and her husband, Kravitz, in Canton.

Kravitz described Hepburn as a humble man who was known for his intelligence and spiritual guidance. Kravitz said that out of all of the Hepburn siblings - which included local historian Marion Hepburn Grant; Margaret Hepburn Perry, former head of the Canton Public Library; playwright Richard Hepburn, and older siblings Thomas and Katharine - Robert was known to his parents as the most focused.

"He [Robert] was probably the glue that held the family together," Kravitz said.

Hepburn is also survived by his son, David P. Hepburn of Glastonbury, and his grandchildren Jarrett, Naomi, Owen and Olivia Kravitz of Canton. There will be no calling hours for Hepburn, and the family will hold a private service.

Contact Tanveer Ali at tali@courant.com.

Robert H Hepburn