Abraham Horvitz, 103

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – Abraham Horvitz, of Providence, died on Jan. 27 at his home at Laurelmead.

Son of Jacob and Fanny Horvitz of Providence, he was a graduate of Classical High School and Brown University. He earned his M.D. at Columbia Medical School in 1936, then went to Washington University in St. Louis to do his residency, he was joined by his wife, the former Eleanor Feldman.

He was working at Harlem Hospital in New York when Pearl Harbor was attacked and, although exempted from the draft because he was a doctor, he felt that it was his obligation to enlist. By the end of 1942, now a lieutenant in the Third Army Surgical Corps, he was on board a transport ship headed for England. On June 7, 1944, on Utah Beach in Normandy, he was in a surgical tent, operating on wounded American and German soldiers. Months later, he would come under fire in the Battle of the Bulge but nothing could have prepared him for the horror that awaited him when he witnessed the liberation of a concentration camp, a searing experience that almost certainly strengthened his identity as a Jew and made him an ardent supporter of Israel. What he remembered most especially was an ambush of U.S. battleships by U-boats in the English Channel during a practice run for the D-Day invasion. His ship, however, went untouched. God, he believed, had saved him for some purpose, a belief that thousands of his patients would come to share in decades to come.

After three years working at Brooklyn Jewish Hospital, he returned to Providence where he opened his surgical practice in 1948. He was affiliated with the Miriam Hospital for 41 years. In 1966, he was named Medical Staff President of the Hospital. By the time he retired at the age of 79, he had performed countless surgeries.

He went on to become a clinical associate professor emeritus of surgery at Brown University Medical School and for many years regularly attended medical conferences at Miriam Hospital. He was a longtime member of Temple Beth-El.

He is survived by his only child Leslie.

Donations in his memory may be made to the Rhode Island Jewish Historical Association or to a charity of your choice.