David A. Link MD

David Link died peacefully at home, on July 7, after living courageously with pancreatic cancer. He was born on July 1, 1944 in Cleveland, Ohio to Alex and Betty Link, who fled Europe in 1939 to escape the Holocaust. He received his undergraduate degree in Government from Harvard University, and his MD from Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He completed his pediatric residency at Mass General Hospital and pediatric nephrology fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital. He was Chief of Pediatrics at Cambridge Health Alliance and Mt. Auburn Hospital for over 30 years, where he combined his loves of patient care, teaching and community health. He served as a primary care pediatrician for thousands of children, taught generations of pediatric residents, implemented innovative clinical and educational programs including yearlong interdisciplinary medical student rotations at Cambridge Hospital, and asthma and vaccination programs for the cities of Cambridge, Somerville, and Everett. He served as health commissioner for Somerville for over 20 years. He volunteered with many organizations including Combined Jewish Philanthropies, where he helped to develop a longstanding partnership with the Health Ministry of Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine to improve maternal and childhood health outcomes.

David was a lifelong scholar of Talmudic and Judaic studies, and in his retirement taught courses at the Harvard Institute of Learning in Retirement and other venues on the works of novelist Shmuel Yosef Agnon. David spent his spare time indulging his passions including astronomy, sailing, Mozart, reading and cycling. He rode the Pan Mass Challenge multiple times to benefit research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

David was a respected member of many communities, a devoted friend, husband, father and grandfather. He is survived by his wife of 47 years, Dr. Margaret Ross Link; son Benjamin and daughter-in-law Dr. Becky Genberg, and their children Annika and Caleb, son Dr. Nathaniel and his partner Dr. Yen Pham; daughter Dr. Rebecca and her husband Adam Marvin; sister Dr. Judith Oster and her extended family; brother Dr. Michael Link and his wife Vicki, sisters-in-law Laura Roth and husband Alan and Elizabeth Ross and husband William O’Reilly, as well as numerous cousins, nieces and nephews around the globe.

Services will be held at Temple Emanuel, 385 Ward Street, Newton on Friday, July 9 at 9:30 AM.

Contributions may be made to Partners in Health (www.pih.org), Dr. David A. Link Scholarship for the Health Professions at FOCRLS (www.focrls.org/linkscholarship), Center for Jewish Studies at Harvard (cjs.fas.harvard.edu), or Combined Jewish Philanthropies (www.cjp.org).

Visiting Hours will be at his late residence, Friday, July 9th from 1:30-3:30 PM, and continuing on Sunday-Wednesday, July11th-14th from 7:00-9:00 PM.