Beat Richner

Beat Richner (1947 to 2018) was a Swiss pediatrician, cellist and founder of children hospitals in Cambodia. Born in Zurich, he took his medical degree in 1973 and specialised in pediatric care at the Zurich Childrens Hospital, then worked for the Swiss Red Cross at the Kantha Bopha Childrens Hospital in Phnom Penh in 1974 and 1975 until the Khmer Rouge takeover forced him home. He also created Beatocello, a comic clown character who played the cello, and published children books under that name. In December 1991 he returned to Cambodia at the request of its government to rebuild Kantha Bopha, founded the Kantha Bopha Foundation in Zurich in 1992 and led it, and the hospital reopened in November 1992. The foundation went on to support five Kantha Bopha hospitals, and Richner gave free benefit cello concerts for visitors at the Jayavarman VII hospital in Siem Reap while asking tourists for blood, money or both.