In Memoriam
Faculty
Elizabeth Auchincloss, MD, lecturer in the Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, died Oct. 26, 2023. Read more in Alumni In Memoriam (Class of 1977).
June Jackson Christmas, MD, former clinical professor of psychiatry, died Dec. 31, 2023.
Sergio Piomelli, MD, director of pediatric hematology/oncology from 1979 to 2005, died Jan. 11, 2024
John Schullinger, MD, professor emeritus of clinical surgery, died Nov. 13, 2023. Read more in Alumni In Memoriam (Class of 1955).
David Shaffer, MD, retired Irving Philips Professor of Child Psychiatry, professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, and chief of the Division of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, died Oct. 15, 2023.
Michael Stone, MD, professor of clinical psychiatry, died Dec. 6, 2023.
Earl Zimmerman, MD, former professor of neurology, died Dec. 26, 2023.
Alumni
1946
Clifford Tepper, a pediatrician, allergist, and immunologist who practiced for 40 years in Schenectady, New York, died Sept. 4, 2023. He was 100. The son of immigrants from Eastern Europe, he attended medical school in U.S. military uniform and, upon graduation, managed U.S. Air Force mobile hospitals in Florida and Alaska. He trained in pediatrics at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center and at Columbia’s Babies Hospital before opening a practice in Schenectady and teaching at Albany Medical College. He advocated for regulations and restrictions on cigarettes, smoking in public, and carcinogenic food additives. He helped create public nature preserves along the Mohawk River and in Niskayuna, including donating what is now the Schoharie Creek Preserve to the Mohawk-Hudson Land Conservancy. Late in his career, he and several local doctors established the Schenectady Free Medical Clinic. He is survived by his wife, Cynthia Ruth Silver, four children, six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
1949
Ellen Zinsser Green, former assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health, died Aug. 15, 2023, at age 98. She trained at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital in Philadelphia before moving to the Twin Cities, where she spent much of her career. She earned a master’s degree in public health at the University of Minnesota and became the public health officer for St. Louis Park, Richfield, and Bloomington. In 1966, she was appointed director of health planning at the state planning agency before becoming assistant commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Health. She served on the boards of the Minnesota Public Health Association, the American Public Health Association, the Council on Education for Public Health, and the Bush Foundation. She and her husband, Bud, who preceded her in death, developed and ran the Sun Valley Music Festival in Idaho for several years. Dr. Green loved tennis, travel, opera, and her dogs. She is survived by four children, eight grandchildren, three step-children, three step-grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
John Gustafson, a pediatric cardiologist and leader of Iowa Methodist’s heart surgery program, died Aug. 22, 2023. He was 99. He served stateside in the Army during World War II and as a medical officer during the Korean War. He trained in pediatrics at Iowa Methodist and Blank Children’s hospitals. He helped set up Iowa Methodist’s heart lab, where he performed all the adult and pediatric heart catheterizations from 1954 to 1969, organized the heart surgery team, and ran the heart pump. In 1959, he began pioneering research in the medical use of computers at the hospital. In 1969, he took over the emergency room and ran it for 15 years. He also became the medical director of several small Des Moines life insurance companies. Dr. Gustafson was a competitive player of duplicate bridge; he achieved the rank of Grand Life Master and represented the United States in world championship events with his late wife, Helen. He is survived by two children, two grandchildren, and five
great-grandchildren.
1954
James Garvey Jr., a Cincinnati cardiologist honored at age 89 by the state of Ohio for his community service, died Sept. 8, 2023. He was 95. Dr. Garvey was stationed with the U.S. Army in Richland, Washington, from 1958 to 1960. He later worked at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati. For 30 years, Dr. Garvey volunteered for People Working Cooperatively, repairing houses for older adults. He enjoyed tennis, skiing, jumping waves, playing poker and bridge, gardening, and sailing. He is survived by his second wife, Janie P. Williams, two children, five grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and his dog, Shadow., a Cincinnati cardiologist honored at age 89 by the state of Ohio for his community service, died Sept. 8, 2023. He was 95. Dr. Garvey was stationed with the U.S. Army in Richland, Washington, from 1958 to 1960. He later worked at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati. For 30 years, Dr. Garvey volunteered for People Working Cooperatively, repairing houses for older adults. He enjoyed tennis, skiing, jumping waves, playing poker and bridge, gardening, and sailing. He is survived by his second wife, Janie P. Williams, two children, five grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and his dog, Shadow.
1955
Dudley Rochester, an internist and longtime head of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Virginia, died Nov. 29, 2023. He was 95. He trained at Presbyterian Hospital and Bellevue Hospital, served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps in France from 1960 to 1962, and worked at Harlem Hospital from 1968 to 1976. He then joined the University of Virginia and its hospital, where he would serve for nearly three decades before retiring as emeritus professor. Dr. Rochester was honored with the Scientific Accomplishment award by the American Thoracic Society in 1996. He was a leader of the American Lung Association of Virginia. He volunteered with the vestry of St. Paul’s Memorial Church in Charlottesville, Virginia. He enjoyed photography. His daughter, Carolyn Rochester, graduated from VP&S in 1983.
John Schullinger, professor emeritus of clinical surgery at VP&S, whose primary interests were the surgical problems of infants and children, especially those with cancer, died Nov. 13, 2023. He was 94. He completed postgraduate training at Columbia, interrupted by two and a half years as a ship surgeon for the U.S. Navy in the Arctic and Antarctic. He practiced and taught general surgery until 1969, when he joined Babies Hospital (now Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital). He was editor for 35 years of the International Abstracts of Pediatric Surgery for the Journal of Pediatric Surgery. After retiring from Columbia in 1997, he served on committees, including admissions, for VP&S. He was a board member of the Charles Edison Fund, the National Hypertension Association, and the Hotchkiss School and was a founding member of the Children of China Pediatrics Foundation. He and his wife, Nancy, moved to Woodstock, Vermont, where he enjoyed fly fishing, painting, astronomy, and geology. Until 2015, he traveled annually to China to provide surgical care at orphanages. Survivors include his daughter.
1956
Charles “Bill” Chastain III, a family medicine practitioner and devout Catholic, died Aug. 21, 2023. He was 92. He trained at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital in Cooperstown and served in the medical corps of the U.S. Army before joining the Medical Arts Clinic in Farmington, Missouri, where he worked from 1959 to 1977. He later joined the University of Missouri-Kansas City medical school as a clinical associate professor of medicine and directed the family practice residency at North Kansas City Memorial Hospital. In 1979, he returned to Farmington, where he founded Family Healthcare of Southeast Missouri. He retired but returned to serve as medical director of Missouri’s largest prison, Eastern Reception, Diagnostic, and Correctional Center, until 2016. He enjoyed community theater, bridge, and exploring the outdoors. Dr. Chastain is survived by his wife, Joanne, seven children, 13 grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren.
Vernon Wendt, a longtime internal medicine doctor and cardiologist in East Grand Rapids, Michigan, died Nov. 26, 2023. He was 92. He moved to Grand Rapids in 1965, serving as director of research at Blodgett Memorial Medical Center before entering private practice from 1967 to 2000. He served as associate professor of internal medicine at Michigan State. He enjoyed gardening, golf, and singing in his church choir. He is survived by six children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.
1957
Burton Lerner, a psychoanalyst and faculty member in the Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research at Columbia for decades, died Dec. 4, 2022. He was 90. He trained in psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and the psychoanalytic center. He guided the Student Health Psychiatric Service at Columbia’s medical center for many years. Dr. Lerner wrote in 1999: “I have tried to structure the Student Health Psychiatric Service so that it facilitates the clinician’s opportunity to help patients understand what is going on inside themselves, to make it possible for them to become better observers of themselves, to enable them to think about how they think.” His clinical work remained a cornerstone of his identity, and he continued seeing a few patients by Zoom until soon before his passing. He is survived by five children and many grandchildren.
1959
Berish “Bob” Strauch, an early pioneer in microsurgery and longtime chair of plastic and reconstructive surgery at Montefiore/Albert Einstein, died Dec. 24, 2023. He was 90. He trained in general surgery at Montefiore Medical Center and hand surgery at Roosevelt Hospital. Before training in plastic and reconstructive surgery at Stanford University, he served in the U.S. Army as a captain in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, and Sagamihara, Japan. He joined Montefiore Medical Center, rising to chief of plastic surgery by 1978 and chair by 1987, a post he held until 2007. Under his leadership, Montefiore became a replantation center. He employed the toe-to-thumb transplantation technique and spearheaded research and advancements in microsurgery and peripheral nerve surgery. He patented the “Strauch clamp” to help surgically restore male fertility post-vasectomy and conducted innovative research in the field of pulsed electromagnetic fields to improve healing and lessen postoperative pain. He is survived by two children and seven grandchildren. His wife, Rena, preceded him in death by eight weeks.
1960
Richard “Dick” Anderson, a cardiologist for decades in Falmouth, Maine, died Aug. 23, 2023. He was 87. He trained at Mary Fletcher Hospital in Burlington, Vermont. He served as a general medical officer for three years in the U.S. Navy, including a year at the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland. In 1974, he joined Maine Cardiology Associates. He served on various medical association boards and as a clinical assistant professor. At his retirement in 1998, his staff lauded him: “To solve all the office problems, we need to clone Dr. Anderson.” He attended Falmouth Congregational Church for 46 years and sang in its choir. He enjoyed sailing and fly fishing. Dr. Anderson is survived by his wife, Bonnie, three children, and seven grandchildren.
Rita Weinberg Clark, a psychoanalyst, died Aug. 18, 2023. She was one of only two women studying premed in her class at Brooklyn College. In 1956, she married Dr. Julian Clark, with whom she shared a medical practice. She taught psychiatry residents at Maimonides Medical Center and was an expert witness at disability hearings. She wrote a book on ethics for the American Psychoanalytic Association and became a regular speaker on the topic. A lifelong Brooklynite, Dr. Clark traveled widely, especially to Europe, with a particular love of France. She was an avid cook and a generous host of memorable meals with family and friends. She is survived by two daughters and three grandchildren.
Peter Benjamin Dunne, chairman emeritus of neurology at the University of South Florida, died Aug. 28, 2023. He was 89. He trained at Bellevue Hospital and the Neurological Institute at Columbia before entering private practice with the Kaiser Permanente Medical Group in Los Angeles. He was an assistant clinical professor of neurology at the USC School of Medicine. Drafted into the U.S. Army in 1968, he served in Vietnam, then at Letterman General Hospital, and was discharged in 1970 as a lieutenant colonel. He taught at the University of Vermont medical school before joining the founding medical faculty of the University of South Florida in 1973. He also spent many years in private practice and consulted on veterinary neurological cases at Busch Gardens and Lowry Park Zoo. After retiring from USF in 2007, he continued treating patients at James A. Haley VA Hospital. Dr. Dunne was a founding member of the M.S. Section of the American Academy of Neurology. He loved music, competitive running and tennis, and history. He is survived by his wife, Faith, two children, and a cat, Tula.
1961
Robert “Bob” Scott, an internist who practiced in Minneapolis, died Nov. 26, 2023. He was 88. He captained and quarterbacked the football team at Carleton College, where he set track and field records. He worked as a deputy coroner to support his family while training at General Hospital (now Hennepin County Medical Center) in Minneapolis. While serving as chief of staff of Northwestern Hospital, he was instrumental in the merger of Abbot Hospital and Northwestern Hospital. He later became chief of staff of the newly merged complex. Dr. Scott edited and was a coauthor of “Abbott Northwestern Hospital: 1882-Present, A Celebrated History.” He served on hospital foundation boards and was the moderator of Mayflower United Church of Christ. He enjoyed photography, cooking, skiing, and sailing. He is survived by his wife, Belle, three children, seven grandchildren, six step-grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
John A. Talbott, a psychiatrist who devoted his career to advocating for the care of vulnerable populations, especially unhoused people with mental illnesses, died Nov. 29, 2023. He was 88. He served as a captain in the Medical Corps in Vietnam, after which he became an anti-war activist. He trained at New York State Psychiatric Institute and Presbyterian Hospital, where he was chief resident. He earned a certificate in psychoanalysis from Columbia’s psychoanalytic center in 1971 and joined Cornell University in 1975 as a professor of psychiatry. He directed both the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic of New York Hospital and the Dunlop-Manhattan Psychiatric Hospital, serving patients in lower Manhattan. He advocated for community-based treatment of the mentally ill homeless, but after state hospitals were emptied and the money and political will to establish community treatment options were mostly abandoned, he called it a tragedy. “The chronic mentally ill patient had his locus of living and care transferred from a single lousy institution to multiple wretched ones,” he wrote in the journal Hospital and Community Psychiatry in 1979. The last third of his career was spent teaching at the University of Maryland and as director of the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the University of Maryland Medical System. Decades ago, Dr. Talbott began reviewing restaurants in France and maintained a lively and extensive food blog, John Talbott’s Paris. He is survived by his wife, Susan, two daughters, and six grandchildren.
1962
John Kovach, a physician-scientist focused on the causation and treatment of cancer, died Oct. 5, 2023. He was 87. He trained in internal medicine and oncology at Columbia before spending several years at the NIH. He marched on Washington in 1963 and attended Woodstock in 1969. He returned to Columbia as an assistant professor of medicine, where he managed early-phase cancer clinical trials. He joined the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, where he served as director of the Cancer Pharmacology Division, chair of the Department of Oncology, and director of the NCI-designated Mayo Comprehensive Cancer Center. From 1994 through 2000, he was executive vice president for medical and scientific affairs at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California. He led the successful effort for City of Hope to become a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center. In 2000, he founded the Long Island Cancer Center (now Stony Brook University Cancer Center) in Stony Brook, Long Island. In 2005, he founded Lixte Biotechnology Holdings (now LIXTE), a drug development company. Dr. Kovach’s interests ranged from theoretical physics to pre-Columbian art. He is survived by his wife, Barbara, two daughters, a stepson, and two grandsons.
1963
Jeanne (formerly Eugene) Hoff, possibly the first openly transgender psychiatrist, died Oct. 26, 2023. She was 85. Dr. Hoff trained at Washington University in St. Louis. She trained with and then took over the New York City-based practice of pioneering sexologist and endocrinologist Harry Benjamin before opening her private practice in transgender and transition-related care. Dr. Hoff was a devout Catholic and active member of the gay Catholic organization Dignity/New York. At age 39, Dr. Hoff invited a television crew to document her gender affirmation transition and surgery. She felt she could not encourage her patients to live openly, confidently, and free of shame without doing so herself and hoped to inform the medical profession of her difficulties in finding appropriate care. The resulting documentary “Becoming Jeanne: A Search for Sexual Identity,” aired on NBC. In the 1980s, Dr. Hoff sold her practice and joined a state outpatient clinic in Kingston, New York, where she treated severely disabled, long-term psychiatric patients. After moving to California she worked for the California Department of Corrections. Dr. Hoff argued successfully for the release of a transgender woman who had been institutionalized from age 15 to 30 because doctors had diagnosed her assertion of her gender identity as “mental retardation,” “delusion,” and “sexual perversion.” Dr. Hoff retired in 1999 after a death row prisoner at San Quentin attacked her. Her professional archives and correspondence were donated to the Kinsey Institute.
John Thomas Murphy, a neurologist, died Dec. 27, 2023. He was 85. After medical school, he embarked on a career in academic medicine, earning a PhD in neurophysiology from McGill University and advancing to professor and chair of neurophysiology at the University of Toronto. In 1980, Dr. Murphy transitioned to clinical medicine, entering a residency in neurology at age 42. He was a consulting neurologist at Toronto General Hospital and, in 1987, moved into private practice in Barrie, Ontario, Canada. After his retirement, he moved to Maryland, New Hampshire, and most recently to New Jersey to be closer to family. He loved nature, music, mathematics, and economics. Dr. Murphy is survived by his wife, Barbara, three children, and nine grandchildren.
1964
Arthur Hoyte, an OB/GYN and former commissioner of public health for Washington, D.C., known for his efforts to promote health care access for underserved communities, died Oct. 26, 2023. He was 85. Following training at San Francisco General Hospital and Columbia, he went into practice at Kaiser-Permanente Hospital in Oakland, California. In 1972, Dr. Hoyte was asked to join the Health Affairs Department of the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity in Washington, D.C. He joined Georgetown medical school’s faculty, where he served for 26 years in various faculty and administrative roles. Dr. Hoyte strongly advocated for access to medical education for those most excluded from the profession. In 1976, he initiated the Georgetown Experimental Medical Studies Program, a post-baccalaureate experience for minority students. The program has graduated more than 800 health care professionals, including 564 physicians. Dr. Hoyte took a one-year leave of absence in 1982 to serve as commissioner of public health for Washington, D.C., at the mayor’s request. He retired from Georgetown Medical Center in 1999. He is survived by his wife, Maria, two children, and two grandchildren. He is also survived by his former wife, Stephanie, and their son.
1965
Robert Carida, quadruple board certified in internal medicine, cardiovascular disease, echocardiography, and lipidology, died Oct. 20, 2023, in Santa Margherita Ligure while on a tour of Italy, the birthplace of his parents. He was 85, and the cause of death was COVID. Dr. Carida trained at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Manhattan. He served as a U.S. Air Force captain in Victorville, California, for two years. From 1966 to 1968, he served as a base physician and psychiatrist at George Air Force Base. A specialist in preventive medicine, Dr. Carida spent the next 30 years practicing cardiology in Broward and Palm Beach counties. He focused on lipidology for the last few decades of his practice and was among only 200 physicians who passed the first American Board of Clinical Lipidology exam in 2009. He was 70 at the time and healing from a fractured hip. He again passed the boards at 80 years old. He loved the arts, especially opera. He is survived by his wife, Karen, three children, and two grandchildren.
Patrick Dowling, an orthopedic surgeon and team doctor to the U.S. Olympic freestyle ski team, died June 22, 2023, at Maine Medical Center. He was 81. After training in Manhattan, Portland, and Pittsburgh, he served from 1969 through 1972 as lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy stationed at Chelsea Naval Hospital. He and his wife, Bonnie, moved their young family to Cape Elizabeth, Maine. He taught arthroscopy at annual physician clinics. He held physician leadership positions at Maine Medical Center and Mercy Hospital. In 1978, he and a small group of fellow doctors founded the Medical Mutual Insurance Company of Maine. Dr. Dowling chaired its board until 2002, when he retired from his orthopedics practice to become the company’s CEO. While practicing medicine, Dr. Dowling served as a U.S. delegate to the Federation of International Skiing (FIS) from 1982 through 1994. He represented the U.S. and freestyle skiing at FIS Congresses across six continents. He attended the Olympics in an official capacity in Calgary, Albertville, and Lillehammer. As team doctor to the U.S. freestyle ski team he was instrumental in establishing the team’s physician pool program. He was also an avid golfer. He is survived by four children and eight grandchildren.
Howard Ginsburg, former chief of surgery at LaGuardia Hospital in Forest Hills, where he practiced for over 30 years, died Nov. 5, 2023, at age 83. Dr. Ginsburg was house goalie for Eliot House at Harvard University as an undergraduate and served as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Navy. He is survived by his wife, Judi, three children, and three grandchildren.
1970
Isaac Craig Henderson, a medical oncologist who made substantial conceptual and leadership contributions over five decades to the translational and clinical research, evaluation, and treatment of breast cancer, died Dec. 26, 2022. He was 81. After traveling through India on a Fulbright fellowship, he paid for medical school by working as a taxi driver in New York City. Following internship and residency in New York, he served for two years in the U.S. Public Health Service as a research associate at the NIH before completing his training at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. He served as founder and director of the Breast Evaluation Center at Harvard before joining the University of California, San Francisco, faculty. He was deputy director of the San Francisco Cancer Center in its earliest stages before moving on to entrepreneurial roles in the pharmaceutical industry. Dr. Henderson was a principal investigator on the initial phase 2 study of Herceptin. He was an early voice urging the evaluation of high-dose chemotherapy and bone marrow transplants for breast cancer patients; was the principal investigator of the national study establishing the benefits of paclitaxel in early breast cancer treatment; and directed the development of Doxil. Dr. Henderson devoted a considerable amount of time to volunteer work and philanthropy and served for more than 20 years on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Opera. His generosity was reflected in how he and his wife, Mary, opened their home to guests, including hosting VP&S Alumni Association meetings for several years. Dr. Henderson is survived by his wife, two children, and four grandchildren.
1971
Arthur Sprenkle of Seattle, Washington, died May 25, 2023, at age 77. He was raised in Pennsylvania and attended Columbia College on a basketball scholarship. While in medical school, he competed for the Old Blue Rugby team. He was an allergist with practices in Seattle and Everett. He served three terms as a state legislator. During his terms he sponsored the legislation that created the Washington Health Care Authority and the Waste Not Washington Act. His family said his life beyond the facts put to paper “was the Art we all loved. He was smart and kind. He never lost his curiosity or his eagerness to learn. He ate with gusto, danced with enthusiasm, and sang with Moby and Gordon Lightfoot. He had strong opinions and never shied from a debate. He was an animal lover, a tomato whisperer, and the guy who most always took the path less traveled. Art lived every single day. Art believed a single person could make a difference. He believed in the world, and he just wanted to make it a little bit better. And he did.” He is survived by his wife, Marianne Lile, three children, and four grandsons.
1974
Jerry Seals, board-certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases, died Oct. 13, 2023. He was 76. He trained in internal medicine residency programs at Harlem Hospital. He served the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant commander during a two-year subspecialty program in infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, followed by an additional fellowship in infectious diseases at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx. He and his wife, Beverly (White) Seals, a U.S. Department of Labor trial attorney, moved to Columbia, Maryland, in 1980, where he started his medical practice. In 1985, Dr. Seals was elected president of the medical staff for Johns Hopkins Howard County Medical Center, where he also served for many years as director of infectious diseases. Dr. Seals was a loyal Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity member of the Greater Washington Boulé. He provided free medical services to uninsured residents through the Health Alliance Program and served on the Board of Directors for Erickson Senior Living. Dr. Seals is survived by his wife, a daughter, and a grandson.
1977
Elizabeth “Betsy” Auchincloss, emerita professor of clinical psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine, died Oct. 26, 2023, after an extended illness. A talented athlete, she played on Yale’s first women’s basketball team and first women’s tennis team as an undergraduate. She trained at Cornell and the Columbia Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research, where she attained the title of training and supervising analyst before embarking on more than 40 years on the Weill Cornell faculty. She served as the vice chair for education, the inaugural Aaron Stern MD PhD Professor of Psychodynamic Psychiatry, and, for 17 years, the residency program training director. She was author of “The Psychoanalytic Model of the Mind,” co-editor in chief of “Psychoanalytic Terms and Concepts,” and editor of “The Quiet Revolution in American Psychoanalysis.” She was a champion at Boggle, Bananagrams, Wordle, and the New York Times crossword and spelling bee. She is survived by her husband, psychoanalyst Dr. Richard Weiss, three children, and six grandchildren.
1979
Donald Kurth, former mayor of Rancho Cucamonga, California, died Oct. 4, 2023. He was 74. He pursued a fellowship in orthopedic surgery at Oxford University, completed his residency at Johns Hopkins University, and trained at the UCLA Hospital Medical Center. His family said Dr. Kurth became bored with orthopedic surgery and pursued board certification first in emergency medicine and then in addiction medicine. He owned the Urgent Care Center in Rancho Cucamonga for more than 20 years and directed Loma Linda University’s Behavioral Medicine Center for 12 years. He served as an assistant professor at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, with appointments in preventive medicine and psychiatry. He also held a faculty appointment in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Loma Linda University School of Public Health. Dr. Kurth was elected president of Rancho Cucamonga’s Chamber of Commerce in 1994 and became director of the Cucamonga County Water District in 1996. He joined the City Council in 2002 and was mayor for one term in 2006, during which time he improved the public safety response time and dispatch for the Rancho Cucamonga Fire District. His interests included wildlife and geology. Dr. Kurth is survived by his wife, Dee, and two daughters.