Ariah Schwartz
Ariah Schwartz, MD An internationally recognized leader in eye surgery, died August 7, 2008 at the age of 89. Dr Schwartz was born in Montreal, Canada in 1919. As an undergraduate at U.C. Berkeley in 1938, he met his wife, Pauline, in Psychology 1A. They married shortly thereafter. Following medical school at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) and internship at the U.S. Marine Hospital in Detroit, he joined the service. He was initially commissioned to a Coast Guard Cutter operating in the North Atlantic and was then sent to Greenland. As the only physician at a naval base of 150 men, he cared for military personnel and the indigenous Eskimo population. After the service, Dr. Schwartz spent two years in an Ear, Nose, and Throat residency at the Veterans Administration hospital and then three years in an Ophthalmology residency at UCSF. Following residency, Dr. Schwartz received a Heed Fellowship enabling him to train at Harvard with Dr. Charles Schepens, the founder of modern retinal surgery. As part of a Heed Fellowship, he received further retinal specialty training at Stanford, Columbia University, and the Mayo Clinic. When he returned to San Francisco in 1955, he established the Retinal Surgery Unit of the Department of Ophthalmology at UCSF, which he directed until 1966 (His son Dan, is now the director of this same unit). Dr. Schwartz taught at UCSF for almost 50 years and helped train over 150 Ophthalmology residents. In 1992, Dr. Schwartz received the Crowell Beard Award by the ophthalmology residents for outstanding teaching. When laser surgery for the eye was first developed in 1965, Dr. Schwartz employed laser to treat selective cases of diabetes, macular degeneration, and retinal tears. 'Schwartz Syndrome' was named after Dr. Schwartz when he described a form of glaucoma that resolved after surgical treatment of retinal detachment. In 1971, Dr. Schwartz visited Israel for the first time. After returning home, he established a retinal fellowship to bring an Israeli ophthalmologist to the Bay Area for training in modern retinal surgery. Subsequently, Dr. Schwartz returned to Israel to establish a retinal surgical unit at the Asaf Harofe Hospital in Tel Aviv. For his work in Israel, Dr. Schwartz was honored with the Dr. Landau Award in Ophthalmology. Dr. Schwartz had a very busy private practice in Burlingame, CA, with his longtime partners, Dr. Robert Sherwood (deceased), Dr. Hubert Marcus, and Dr. Thomas Neumayr. Patients traveled from all over the world seeking his surgical expertise. Grateful patients contributed over $1 million to establish a research foundation dedicated to ocular disease. Over the past 25 years, the foundation has made annual grants to medical centers in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Africa, and South America. In 1979, Dr. Schwartz was elected president of the American Retina Society, an organization created by leading retinal surgeons from North America to further knowledge in diseases and surgery of the retina. In 1993, at the 50th anniversary of his graduation form the UCSF Medical School, the Alumni-Faculty honored him as the Distinguished Alumnus of his class. Dr. Schwartz was a member of numerous medical societies including the prestigious American Ophthalmologic Society, the American Academy of Ophthalmology (Board of Councilors 1981-1983), the Retina Society (president 1979-1981), the Frederick C. Cordes Eye Society (president 1977-78), the Schepens International Society, the San Francisco Ophthalmological Round Table (president 1974), and the Society of Heed Fellows. Additionally, he was active in the community, serving on the Board of Directors of the Crippled Children's Service for the Easter Seal Society, the Northern California Society to Prevent Blindness (president 1986-1988), and on the Executive Committee of Peninsula Hospital. Dr. Schwartz played tennis most of his life. As a member of his high school team, a high point was losing a match to the famed Bobby Riggs. He learned to ski as an adult when he and Pauline took up the sport together at age 50. Dr. Schwartz skied avidly until he was 78. Dr. Schwartz is survived by his wife Pauline; his four children: Nina, Eric, Daniel, and David; and his grandson Frank.
03/31/09 Submitted by: 
James Demerin
