Alumni

1939
Robert G. Hyams, a retired general surgeon, died Aug. 27, 2012. Dr. Hyams was affiliated with Mercy, South Miami, Jackson Memorial, Variety Children’s, and Cedars of Lebanon hospitals, all in Miami, Fla. He is survived by his wife, Doris, and a son.

1943M
Joseph R. Kuh, a retired internist, died Nov. 16, 2012. An attending physician at Lenox Hill Hospital, Dr. Kuh had a private practice in Manhattan until his retirement in 2005. He served in the U.S. Navy during World War II, participated in both the Normandy and Okinawa invasions, and returned to active duty as a lieutenant commander during the Korean conflict. Dr. Kuh was a past chairman of the Committee on Aging of the New York County Medical Society. He is survived by his wife, Nana.

1943D
Celia White Tabor died Dec. 2, 2012, in Bethesda, Md. She was internationally known for her research on the biochemistry of biologically important polyamines. After graduation from P&S, she was appointed as the first woman intern in internal medicine at Mas­sachusetts General Hospital in 1944. She later spent 53 years conducting research in biochemistry at the NIH. She worked closely with her husband, Herbert Tabor, MD, in the laboratory, in publishing widely in the biochemical literature, and in editing three volumes of “Methods in Enzymology.” Together they received the Rose Award for biochemical research from the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and the Hillebrand Award for original contributions to the science of chemistry from the Chemical Society of Washington. She is survived by her husband, three sons (including Edward Tabor’73), one daughter, 10 grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

1946
Robert Specht died Jan. 6, 2013, in Falmouth, Mass., a day after turning 90. His undergraduate education at Princeton and medical education at P&S were accelerated by World War II, and he became a physician at age 25. After serving briefly as a stateside Army surgeon and finishing his training in Massachusetts, he settled with his family in Summit, N.J., joining Summit Medical Group and the staff of Overlook Hospital, where for a time he was president of the medical staff. Survivors include his wife, Nancy, four children, eight grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.

1947
William A. Bauman, clinical professor of pediatrics at P&S and a pioneer in the field of medical informatics, died Nov. 28, 2012. Dr. Bauman served as captain in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean conflict. He pursued graduate work in biostatistics at Columbia and devoted much of his career to the advancement of computer technology in medicine. He started the computer-based medical informatics department at Presbyterian Hospital and was a founder of the American Association of Medical Systems and Informatics. Dr. Bauman served for many years as executive vice president of medical affairs at Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Conn. His research focused on the use of information technology in health care delivery. At P&S he also served as a faculty adviser to the P&S Club. He is survived by his wife, Joan, a daughter, and two sons, including Phillip Bauman’81. 

1948
Norman H. Horwitz, professor emeritus of neurological surgery at George Washington University, died Oct. 2, 2012, at age 87. Dr. Horwitz served in the U.S. Air Force in the neurosurgical unit at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio during the Korean conflict. He was noted for successfully removing an explosive bullet from the neck of Thomas Delahanty, a police officer escorting President Reagan in 1981 when John W. Hinckley Jr. made his assassination attempt. Co-author of numerous scientific papers, Dr. Horwitz was also the co-author, with Hugo V. Rizzoli, of a highly regarded medical textbook, “Postoperative Complications in Neurosurgical Practice: Recognition, Prevention and Management.” He is survived by his wife, Elinor, a daughter, and two sons.

Lester Levy died Feb. 24, 2012. Professor emeritus of nuclear medicine at SUNY Health Sciences Center in Stony Brook, N.Y., he served for many years as chief of the Division of Nuclear Medicine at Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center. Dr. Levy served as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, pursuing research at the U.S. Army Nutrition Laboratory in Denver, Colo. He is survived by two daughters. 

Jane West Magill died Feb. 22, 2010. She was preceded in death by her first husband, Gordon Magill’46, and her second husband, Patrick Reddy. Dr. Magill, a retired internist, was formerly a physician with the New York State Department of Corrections, caring for inmates with AIDS and TB at Eastern Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Napanoch, N.Y. Earlier, she served for many years as director of the employee health service at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. She is survived by four daughters. 

1949
Joan E. Morgenthau, former professor of clinical pediatrics and preventive medicine and associate dean for student affairs at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, died Oct. 1, 2012. Dr. Morgenthau was founding director of the Mount Sinai Adolescent Health Center and later served as director of health services and professor of psychology at Smith College. Dr. Morgenthau, who also taught professional responsibility at Yale School of Medicine, spent more than two decades as surveyor for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations and was the first woman elected to the board of the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Preceded in death by her husband, Fred Hirschhorn, she is survived by three daughters and seven grandchildren. Dr. Morgenthau was a loyal alumna and staunch supporter of P&S.

1950
Richard Conroy, a retired internist, died June 21, 2012, after a lengthy battle with Parkinson’s disease. He served as a flight surgeon with Carrier Air Group 19 during the Korean conflict. Dr. Conroy pursued a private medical practice in Manhattan for more than a decade before accepting a position with the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, where he served for more than 36 years as head of the Division of General Internal Medicine. Survivors include his wife, Genevieve, a daughter, and two grandchildren.

Gordon R. Meyerhoff, a retired psychiatrist, died May 9, 2012. Dr. Meyerhoff had been acting medical director of the Hempstead Psychotherapy Service and consultant to the Brooklyn Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Children. He also served as staff psychiatrist at the Greenpoint Hospital in Brooklyn. He is survived by his wife, Eleanor, a daughter, a son, and three grandchildren. 

1952 PSY
Daniel Shapiro, a retired clinical psychoanalyst, died Sept. 4, 2012. Dr. Shapiro was affiliated with the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, from which he received George Goldman and George Daniels merit awards.

1954
Richard M. Hays, professor emeritus of medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, died Nov. 22, 2012, at age 85. Dr. Hays served as director of the Division of Nephrology at Einstein and as director of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory in Maine. He pursued research in water movement across the cell membrane. Using the toad urinary bladder, he was able to prove that water moved through channels so narrow as to exclude all but water and that the hormone vasopressin greatly increased the number of channels in the kidney collecting duct. Of the state of medicine at the present compared with the time of his graduation, Dr. Hays once wrote on an alumni questionnaire: “As a science, the advances are breathtaking. As a social instrument, much still to be accomplished.” He is survived by his wife, Susan Pope Hays, two daughters, two sons, and six grandchildren. 

1955
Burton J. Polansky, associate professor of medicine at Boston University and chief of medicine and cardiology at Signature Healthcare Brockton Hospital in Brockton, Mass., died June 30, 2012. He is survived by his wife, Faye, two daughters, three sons, two stepdaughters, a stepson, and 10 grandchildren. Dr. Polansky was a loyal alumnus and a generous supporter of the medical school. 

1961
John F. Rosen, a pediatrician and world-renowned expert on the health effects of lead exposure in children, died Dec. 7, 2012. Dr. Rosen was professor of pediatrics and head of the Division of Environmental Sciences at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center, an institution with which he was affiliated for more than three decades. He chaired the 1985 and 1991 CDC Committee on Preventing Childhood Lead Poisoning, which published national guidelines on the definition, treatment, and prevention of lead poisoning. As a result of this work, the threshold at which children were considered to be poisoned by lead was lowered in 1991. Dr. Rosen performed extensive research and published more than 100 scientific papers on the effects of lead poisoning in children and lead poisoning treatment and prevention. In 1991 he established the Safe House for Lead Poisoning Prevention, a temporary housing facility in which families affected by lead poisoning can stay while their homes are being made lead-safe. He was director of the Lead Poisoning Prevention Program at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore, the largest lead clinic in the nation. Among his many accomplishments, Dr. Rosen exposed unsafe conditions in the New York City school system and in public housing projects and pursued research showing that children in inner city areas were suffering from high levels of lead contamination. He was also one of the pioneers of the use of X-ray fluorescence to measure bone lead levels, which is a better determinant of long-term lead exposure than blood levels. Since the effects of lead poisoning are not reversible, Dr. Rosen focused on prevention by leading the call to remove lead paint from apartments and schools. He was instrumental in setting up lead poisoning monitoring programs nationally and internationally. He is survived by his wife, Margaret, a daughter, and two sons, including Carlo L. Rosen’91. 

Seth Harvey, a retired general surgeon, died of a rare cancer Sept. 5, 2012. He was 79. His P&S lineage reached back to his father, Dr. Harold Dortic Harvey, a professor of surgery, and his godmother, the distinguished surgical pathologist, Virginia Kneeland Frantz’22. Dr. Harvey served as a captain in the U.S. Army Medical Corps, based in Grafenwohr, Germany, from 1963 to 1965. He pursued a private surgical practice and was a member of the staff at Falmouth Hospital, in Falmouth, Mass., where he also served as chief of surgery and chief of the medical staff. He is survived by a daughter and three sons.

1963
Susan M. Fisher, a psychoanalytically trained psychiatrist, died June 21, 2012. Clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and a training and supervising analyst at the Chicago Institute for Psychoanalysis, she pursued a private practice in child, adolescent, adult, and family psychiatry. Preceded in death by her husband, Herman Sinaiko, she is survived by a daughter and a son. 

1967 PSY
Ethel Person, a psychoanalytically trained psychiatrist and professor of clinical psychiatry at P&S who pursued landmark studies in sexuality and the role of sexual fantasy in people’s lives, died Oct. 16, 2012, from complications of Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Person’s research shed light on previously unexplored aspects of transsexuality and transgender behavior and the wide spectrum and powerful effect of sexual fantasy. She was the author of four books, notably “By Force of Fantasy: How We Make Our Lives,” a work addressed to a general readership. She is survived by two sons, two step-daughters, a grandchild, and three step-grandchildren.

1967
Stephen Rosenblum, clinical professor of psychiatry at George Washington University and former supervising psychoanalyst and past president of the Washington Center for Psychoanalysis, died Oct. 12, 2012, of lymphoma. Dr. Rosenblum served in the U.S. Army. He was a recipient of the American Psychoanalytic Association’s Edith Sabshin Teaching Award. Dr. Rosenblum’s survivors include his wife, Carol, a daughter, a son, and five grandchildren.

1969
Robert J. Reza, former medical director of the Respiratory Care Service at Brookhaven Memorial Hospital and a member of the Department of Medicine faculty at SUNY Stonybrook, died Sept. 18, 2012. He is survived by two daughters. 

1970
Caroline Armistead Riely, professor emeritus of medicine and pediatrics and former chief of hepatology at the University of Tennessee, died Dec. 13, 2012, from complications of progressive supranuclear palsy. Co-author of more than 200 papers, abstracts, and book chapters, Dr. Riely was an authority on diseases of the liver during pregnancy. In 2003 she was honored with the Distinguished Clinician Award of the American College of Gastroenterology.

1987
Henry Davison Jr., a general surgeon and member of the surgical staff at the University Medical Center of Princeton at Plainsboro, died of pneumonia Dec. 7, 2012, after a long battle with cancer. Dr. Davison grew up in Fort Smith, Ark., and graduated from Columbia College. He graduated from P&S with distinction, a member of Alpha Omega Alpha. In 1992, Dr. Davison completed a general surgery residency at Columbia-Presbyterian and entered surgical practice at Princeton, N.J., where he was a long-time clinical instructor in the Department of Surgery at UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and served as president of the medical and dental staff. Dr. Davison founded “Soul to Soul,” a program for the general public to provide speakers on health issues of concern to African-Americans, sponsored by the University Medical Center Community Education Outreach. With a colleague, Dr. Davison performed the first laparoscopic colon resection at University Medical Center, where he also pioneered the use of single-port access surgery. A surgeon through and through, he practiced until a week before he died. Among his extra-medical activities, Dr. Davison served for many years on the board of trustees of the Chapin School. He is survived by his wife, Oakley, and three teenage sons.