Class Notes: February 2018

Class Notes:

Arthur D. Drazan, MD’61 has been retired since 1991 as a DABR, FACR, and DABN. He continues to fish, play gold, and is an active member of the Board of his community. Dr. Drazan has 4 children and 8 grandchildren with his wife Sandy.

James Moorefield, MD’61 has just retired after 48 years in the practice of Radiology with Mercy Radiology Group in Sacremento.

Constance Shames, MD’63 Dr. Shames’s novel “Death of a Scholar,” was featured in Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society Winter 2017 Pharos magazine. To read the review click the link here. The review is featured on page 56 of the magazine.

Elliot P. Vichinsky, MD’74 was featured in an NPR article called “ Sickle Cell Patients Endure Discrimination, Poor Care And Shortened Lives.” “One of the national crises in health care is the care for the adult sickle cell,” says researcher and physician Dr. Elliott Vichinsky, who started the sickle cell center at UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland in California in 1978. “This group of people can live much longer with the management we have, and they’re dying because we don’t have access to care.” To read the complete article click here.

James W. Ferguson, MD’ 81 was the former president of the DMC Alumni Association. Dr. Ferguson was the graduation speaker at St George University at Lincoln Center, and received honorary Doctorate for volunteering work. His latest volunteering trip was to Puerto Rico with (RAM) Remote Area Medical. While working in Aguada, Aguidilla areas his met Dr. Atonio Novello (Surgeon Gen. under President Bush) with wife Irene A Ferguson RN and son Dr. James A Ferguson also volunteers.

The pictures below are from Dr. Ferguson’s experience. “Sleeping in bleachers of stadiums to run clinics in available light during the daytime with Remote Area Medical….seeing local residents amid the destruction of Hurricane Irma and Maria…..”

In Memoriam:

*The Alumni Association recognizes in the “In Memoriam” section, not all alumni listed are recently deceased. As we become aware of the passing of our alumni we recognize them to provide their classmates with an update.

George A. Delatush, MD’43 Dr. Delatush has passed away. No other information is available at this time.

Stanley E. Gitlow, MD’48 Stanley Edward Gitlow, MD passed away June 19 at age 91 in Naples, Florida. A specialist in internal medicine and hypertension, Dr. Gitlow served New York City residents from his private practice for roughly five decades while simultaneously serving as Clinical Professor of Medicine at the Mount Sinai Medical Center. In 1954, he co-founded what would become the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the professional medical society for addiction specialist physicians, eventually serving as its President for two terms.

To read the complete obituary click here.

Audrey C. Cox, MD’51 KING, Audrey Lilian Cox, was born on November 13, 1925, and departed on December 21, 2017, to join her best friend and husband, Don, in Heaven. She was born in Brooklyn, New York, to Raymond and Ragnhild “Ray” Cox. The grandchild of immigrants from Norway, Audrey treasured her family and personified the determination, strength and generosity that were a cornerstone of her family life. At the age of six, Audrey declared to her family that she would become a physician. While this was a very unusual career choice for a woman at the time, Audrey never wavered from her goals. Once she set her mind to something she achieved it. She graduated from Barnard College at Columbia University and from the medical school of the State University of New York, eventually completing a post-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins. While she was in her internship at Case Western Reserve, she met her true love, Don, and they married in 1953. Audrey and Don settled in Richmond, Virginia and were blessed with three children, Rhonda, Perry and Jon Eric. Audrey adored children and became a pediatrician specializing in development challenges, enabling her to share her enormous love not only with her own kids but also with others. In retirement, she volunteered at the First Presbyterian Preschool, always energized by her love of children (in lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the First Presbyterian Preschool). As her children had their own families, she delighted in watching every stage of her grandchildren’s development, always willing to share her wisdom to help her kids be the best parents. She was a dedicated custodian of the family’s heritage, passing down stories about where ancestors had come from, the challenges they faced and the people they became. Audrey enjoyed traveling the globe and never tired of learning about new places and embracing new cultures. Her sense of humor, generosity and willpower enabled her to embrace each stage of life with positive determination. Her family meant everything to her and her passing creates an enormous void for her children, Rhonda (Olivier) Perraudin, Perry (Patty) King and Jon Eric (Mary) King; and grandchildren, Virginie and Xavier Perraudin, Lily, Holden and Ryan King and Julia and Xander King. We will miss her hugely, but take comfort in knowing that Audrey and Don are together again, traveling around Heaven in their beloved Born Free RV, which will never run out of gas or need GPS. Memorial services will be held Monday, February 19, 10:30 a.m., at Westminster Canterbury Chapel, 1600 Westbrook Ave.

Gilbert S. Melnick, MD’54 Gilbert S. Melnick, M.D. of Caldwell, NJ passed away on Wednesday, January 17, 2018.

Born in the Bronx, NY Dr. Melnick graduated from Cornell University and SUNY Downstate Center Medical School, Brooklyn, NY class of 1954. He interned at Meadowbrook Hospital, Hempstead, NY 1954-1955, and was a Fellow in Radiology and Medical Fellow in Cardiovascular Radiology at University of Minnesota Hospital 1957-1961 and Yale-New Haven Hospital Instructor of Radiology 1963-1966.

To read the complete obituary click here.

Theodore R. Smith, MD’61 “I am very sad to report that my husband, Dr. Theodore R. Smith, SUNY Downstate ’61, died on June 1, 2017. Dr. Smith practiced radiology at Montefiore Medical Center-Weiler/Einstein, in the Bronx, NY, FOR 48 years, and retired as Professor Emeritus in 2015. At the SUNY-Downstate Anniversary Alumni Reunion in May 2011, Dr. Smith was awarded the Harry Z Mellins, MD  Master Teacher Award in Radiology. During his time at Weiler/Einstein he published several articles in peer-reviewed journals and for a time he was also an editor of “Correlation Conferences in Radiology and Pathology” in the New York State Journal of Medicine. In the 1970’s, Dr. Smith performed radiology evaluations at facilities in New York and other sites around the U.S. for the Bronx Professional Standards Review Organization, Inc.

Before joining the staff at Einstein Hospital, Dr. Smith served as a Captain in the U.S. Army. Five days after his discharge he married his wife, Doris, and he passed away a few weeks short of their 50th wedding anniversary. He enjoyed(or not) watching the University of Miami Hurricanes football, the NY Yankees and the NY Giants, and playing golf; most of all, he enjoyed spending time with his family. In addition to his wife, he is survived by two sons and five grandchildren.

Teddy is very much missed by all his colleagues, friends and families, and I wanted to share this with the Downstate community.

Yours, Doris Patt Smith”

Steven B. Fibel, MD’77 Dr. Ken Grossman stated “I, unfortunately, would like to inform you of the death of Dr. Steven Fibel Class of ‘77 on January 2, 2017, in Laguna Niguel California. No other information is available.”