Dr. Paul Alan Kantrowitz

Paul A. Kantrowitz, loving husband, father, and grandfather, passed peacefully at home in Brookline on Tuesday, March 26, 2024, surrounded by close family and cats.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y. in 1933, he attended Brooklyn Community School and Midwood High School, but his most cherished childhood memories were of Camp Woodland in the Catskills. He later attended Swarthmore College, earned his medical degree at Columbia University, and spent two years as a physician in the U.S. Army before moving to Brookline in the early 1960s.

Paul’s professional life was focused on direct care to patients. He founded the Gastroenterology department at Mt. Auburn Hospital in 1967 and worked there and at the MIT clinic until 2015. He was active in national professional organizations. But the highlight of his professional life was talking with patients, assessing their needs, and helping them heal. Even after his retirement, he continued to teaching interviewing and communication skills to first-year students from Harvard Medical School. At 90 years old he continued to revel in that work with young clinicians and to treat it with great seriousness.

Paul shared many things with his loved ones, most of all his kindness, curiosity, and intelligence. He also shared his love of food, from the French cooking that dazzled him as a young man to the gefilte fish and herring he snacked on late in the evening. He traveled whenever possible, always with Judy, his beloved wife of 65 years. Together they walked the cities he loved: New York, Paris, London, Florence, Rome, Kyoto, and Copenhagen. They also spent time in the Berkshires and, when their children were young, on the Cape. He is survived by his wife Judy, his children Steve and Amy Kantrowitz, his grandchildren Elliot and Sophie, and his sister Judy Harris. His son Jeff passed away in 2001.

Paul continued to work and travel until he suffered a serious stroke on March 3, 2024. He received excellent care at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital and then, when all options were exhausted, from Good Shepherd Community Hospice. Until nearly his last days, he continued to let his nurses and attendants know that he saw and appreciated their work.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that contributions be made to the Midwood High School Math-Science Award, a four-year college scholarship, at https://gofund.me/07e32266