Harry S. Romanowitz MD, pediatrician, mohel and dedicated ember of the Stamford Jewish community, suffered a severe hemorrhagic stroke but died peacefully with his family at his side on Wednesday, Feb. 27.
He was the husband of Shelia Romanowitz.
Affectionately called Hesh by friends and family, he was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Aug. 2, 1949, the only child of Eva and Abe Romanowitz, both Holocaust survivors. Raised and educated in Brooklyn, Hesh met Sheila at Brooklyn College, where he majored in Russian and chemistry. He earned his MD at Yale and completed internship and residency in Pediatrics at the University of Rochester.
After eight years in private practice, he was appointed the first full-time chair and Pediatrician-in-Chief at Stamford Hospital, a position he held for the next 20 years. Under his leadership, the hospital developed a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and full-service Children’s Health Center, and added multiple Pediatric subspecialties. Named one of Connecticut Magazine’s Top Physicians, he was an innovator of after-hours pediatric urgent care facilities and sat on the faculties of Yale University School of Medicine and Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons. As a board member and then president of Student Health Services, he helped create Stamford’s first school-based health center at Stamford High School. He served for a decade as chair of Stamford’s Holocaust Memorial Committee and was a member of the boards of directors of many area institutions, including the Early Childhood Learning Center, ARI, Jewish Family Service, ADL’s Fairfield County Civil Rights Committee, and Fairfield County March of Dimes. He was on the Advisory Council to the State of Connecticut’s Office of the Child Advocate and was also chair of the Ferguson Library (Stamford) board of trustees and received the Friends of the Ferguson’s Community Service Award in 2009.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by his children, Daniel and Avra; and his son-in-law Seamus.
Services were held on Mar. 1 at Temple Beth El in Stamford, followed by Interment at Beth David Cemetery, in Elmont, N.Y.