Dr. Thomas J. DeKornfeld, a respected physician, educator, researcher, and author, leaves behind a remarkable legacy of service to medicine and humanity. Throughout a distinguished career in academic medicine, he was recognized not only for his clinical expertise but also for his commitment to advancing pain management and improving patient care. He had a gentle and empathetic bedside manner that patients appreciated. He also published some 70 papers and books throughout his career, primarily focusing on anesthesiology, respiratory care, postoperative pain management, and medical education.

His life story was as extraordinary as his professional accomplishments. He was born in Iregzemcse, a small town in southwestern Hungary, the youngest son of Marianne and Moric Kornfeld. Shockingly precocious as a child, he was reading Hungarian at a very early age and studying Latin and Greek soon thereafter.

After the Germans invaded Hungary in 1944, he escaped with his family to Portugal. He lived in Portugal until early 1946 under a form of house arrest, before making his way to the United States, where he soon found himself in the Army, on a base in San Antonio, Texas, teaching physiology.

When he was able to return to his own education, he attended George Washington University, where he received his undergraduate degree, then Harvard, where he completed medical school in 1952. While in medical school, he met a beautiful young nurse named Helen Pickert from Berlin, Wisconsin. They married and had four children, and in 1963 settled in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where he served as a professor in the medical school for 30 years. For a more detailed account of these events, read his wonderful autobiography, the aptly titled An Uncommon Life .

Although a renowned anesthesiologist and a leader in assessing respiratory care and inhalation therapy programs, he was also deeply committed to learning more broadly. He read vastly, in several languages and was fascinated by history, 18th and 19th century English literature, arctic exploration, and detective fiction. He was also a great lover of painting, sculpture, and music—subjects he knew well from reading and museum trips—museum trips being a non-negotiable part of any trip to a city with an art museum that interested him. He was very fond of opera, a love that stemmed from his youth in Hungary where during the season he enjoyed the Budapest Opera twice a week from the family box. He was also a great fan of the Baltimore Symphony, and for most of the last 25 years he has been a season subscriber.

He was pre-deceased by Helen DeKornfeld, his much-loved wife of 44 years, and by his second wife, Helen Dilworth DeKornfeld, who brought meaning and pleasure to his later years.

He is survived by his two sons Tom and Jim DeKornfeld, as well as his two daughters, Anne Smith and Christine Hannouche; granddaughters, Phoebe and Chloe DeKornfeld, Marie Shaya and Alicia Post, and Sharon Gomez and Rachel Smith; and grandsons, Nathan and Jacob DeKornfeld, Nicholas Hannouche, and Moses and Daniel Smith, as well as eight great-grandchildren.

Contributions in Dr. DeKornfeld's memory can be made to the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, 1212 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201 or by visiting www.BSOmusic.org/tribute .