John L. "Jack" Chamberlain III

Jack was an active PTC member for many years and faithfully attended meetings with his wife of 46 years, Marietje. He was Secretary in the late 1970’s, a role he fulfilled with great style and enthusiasm. He was an amateur historian and had many personal connections in Washington, which he used to the club’s advantage in helping to plan and host the several meetings there during his tenure. He has been unable to attend meetings for the last 10 years or so but his personality and presence remain a vivid memory for those of us who had the honor of getting to know him.

Read Jack’s obituary here.

Martha Lepow, MD

Dr. Martha Lepow was an active member in the Pediatric Travel Club for years and a close friend, colleague, mentor, and role model to many. She has touched the lives of so many of us and of those in our communities from Cleveland to Hartford to Albany and beyond. Her accomplishments and leadership in the field of Pediatrics and Infectious Diseases nationally were only surpassed by her extraordinary and compassionate dedication to each and every patient and their families.

Within our PTC cities, her career and impact were wide-ranging. She participated in and first-authored several of the publications for the clinical trials in Cleveland of both the Salk and Sabin polio vaccines and of the measles and rubella vaccines with her mentor, PTC member, Dr. Frederick C. Robbins, as well as authored seminal publications on the role of enteroviruses in aseptic meningitis. In Connecticut, she was the founding chair of the UConn Department of Pediatrics, advanced the care of migrant and underserved populations in Hartford, continued work on vaccine clinical trials for meningococcus, and evaluated and advocated locally and nationally for the prevention of lead exposure. During her time in Albany, she was the founding chair of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, was a leader in the Department of Pediatrics, supported the founding of and medical care at the Paul Newman SeriousFun Double H Camp for children with serious medical conditions, served as a leader in regional cystic fibrosis care, and continued involvement in vaccine clinical trials for Hib and varicella. During this time, she also participated in the 076 trial which established the use of Zidovudine (AZT) during pregnancy to prevent maternal to child HIV transmission, led pediatric HIV care in the region, and served as Associate Editor for the Red Book, among other clinical, education, and research roles. She was an academic physician until the end, continuing to participate in journal clubs and case discussions throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and this year.

Dr. Martha Lepow's accomplishments were too many to list and her impact on mentees was immeasurable. She had a truly remarkable life filled with trailblazing accomplishments, grounded in her connection and devotion to her patients, their families, and her colleagues.

An AAP oral history with Dr. Lepow, transcribed in 2017, is available on the AAP Oral History website.

Sheila Barshay Goldbloom, C.M., C.Q.

Sheila Goldbloom died peacefully at home, surrounded by her family, after a long and exemplary life filled with love and purpose. She was ninety-six years old.

She titled her autobiography “Opening Doors”, which encapsulated her life-long determination to create opportunities for herself and the many people — particularly women — she mentored and counselled throughout her life.

Sheila was born in Brooklyn to idealistic parents who had immigrated to the United States as children. Her mother, Esther Reich, was a feminist before the term was popularized and her father, Jacob Barshay, was a highly regarded attorney. Sheila’s childhood was profoundly marked by her father’s death from a heart attack when she was only ten years old. Her mother subsequently married Nathan Rothstein who was Sheila’s much-loved second father. Her parents prized education and launched her on an educational journey, which included a liberal arts degree from Mount Holyoke College. Sheila returned to her studies when her children were young, earning a Master’s in Social Work from McGill and eventually serving on the faculty of the School of Social Work for twenty-eight years. Sheila met Victor when she was working for the League of Women Voters, and he was a resident in pediatrics at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York City. They settled in Montreal, where they raised three children and both pursued lives of public engagement and enduring positive impact. Throughout their sixty-seven-year marriage they supported each other in raising their family, in community engagement, and in their diverse and demanding professional lives.

Sheila provided leadership for many organizations including Red Feather, Centraide du Grand Montréal, La Fondation du Grand Montréal, the Positive Action Committee, Selwyn House School, Trafalgar School for Girls, Vanier College, the McGill Middle East Program in Civil Society and Peace Building, Friends of the McGill Library, Temple Emanu-El-Beth Sholom, the Baron de Hirsch Institute/Jewish Family Services, Weredale House (now part of Batshaw Youth and Family Services), Meals on Wheels, l’Abri en Ville and the Queen Elizabeth Health Complex. In 2007, at the age of eighty-two, she co-chaired a Quebec-wide commission, which made recommendations about how to improve the conditions for senior citizens in the province. Sheila’s myriad contributions were recognized by the Order of Canada and the Ordre National du Québec. She received honorary doctorates from Mount Holyoke College and McGill University. The Quebec Community Groups Network’s annual Community Service Award is named in her and Victor’s honour.

Sheila is survived by her children, Susan (Peter Restler), Michael (Fiona Macleod), and Jonathan (Alice Switocz), her grandchildren, Victoria (Byron Alex) and Lincoln Restler (Anna Poe-Kest), Alexandra and Matthew Goldbloom, her great-grandchildren, Sol and Sylvia Restler-Alex, and her sister Deanne Marein-Efron (Samuel Marein-Efron).

As with the many people whose lives she touched, we are immeasurably grateful for the love, encouragement, and guidance she gave us and the example she set. She has been and will always be our most profound inspiration.

We would like to express our deep gratitude to Lita Abubo, Cecile Gordon and Mayra Rodas for their love and care for Sheila over the last years of her life and to the staff of the Port Royal for their unfailing kindness and support. Nous aimerions également exprimer notre appréciation à Annick St-Jean qui a accompagné Sheila et sa famille avec sagesse et compassion durant ses derniers jours.

Sheila dedicated herself to helping others. Volunteering your time or making a financial contribution to a community organization would be a fitting way to honour her life.

Kurt Hirschhorn, MD

Kurt, MD. It is with great sorrow that we note the passing of Kurt Hirschhorn, MD, a legendary pediatrician, medical geneticist, and cytogeneticist. A member of the Mount Sinai community for 50 years, Dr. Hirschhorn served as the Herbert H. Lehman Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics and Pediatrician-in-Chief of The Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine (now the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai) from 1977 until 1995. He established one of the first laboratories in the United States for clinical chromosome studies, where he and co-researcher Herbert L. Cooper, MD, first defined what later became known as Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, a condition that causes malformations in many parts of the body due to a genetic chromosome deletion. His subsequent groundbreaking research effort, spanning the spectrum from cytogenetics to immunology, was immensely productive, culminating in the publication of more than 400 articles. Dr. Hirschhorn received many national and international honors, among them membership in the National Academy of Medicine as well as the highest awards in pediatrics and human genetics. Mount Sinai has lost a cherished colleague, a dedicated scientist, an exceptional mentor, advisor, and teacher, as well as a lifelong friend to many. We express our deepest condolences to the Hirschhorn family--including his wife, Rochelle; three children, Joel, Lisa, and Melanie; and grandchildren--and ask that you keep them in your thoughts during this difficult time. Dennis S. Charney, MD, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Dean, Icahn Mount Sinai, and President for Academic Affairs, Mount Sinai Health System Lisa M. Satlin, MD, Chair, Jack and Lucy Clark Department of Pediatrics, Herbert H. Lehman Professor of Pediatrics, Icahn Mount Sinai, and Pediatrician-in-Chief, Mount Sinai Kravis Children's Hospital Bruce D. Gelb, MD, Dean for Child Health Research, and Director and Gogel Family Professor, The Mindich Child Health and Development Institute, Icahn Mount Sinai.

Listen to A Conversation with Kurt and Rochelle Hirschhorn as they talk with their son, Joel, about their research and collaborations, the early years of medical genetics, the development of genetic counseling, and more.