In Memory

Marc Weinberger (Weinberger Marc)

Died on September 2, 2018, after a long and very courageous battle with Parkinson's Disease, at his home in Petaluma, California, where he had lived since May 2009.  Marc was born in Brooklyn, New York on April 4, 1944, to Harold Weinberger and Ruth Zuckerman Weinberger, and raised in Teaneck, New Jersey.  He graduated from the University of Chicago in 1963 where he majored in political science.  Following this he served as a Congressional Aide to James Roosevelt for one year before going on to receive his law degree from Columbia University in 1967.  After graduating he worked at the law firm of Barrett Knapp Smith & Schapiro in Manhattan.

Throughout his professional life, Marc advocated for the rights of economically disenfranchised communities, particularly in the area of health care.  He participated in Freedom Summer in Mississippi in 1964, to encourage African Americans to register to vote. 

Marc went on to hold various positions with the New York City Health Services Administration, ultimately becoming Deputy Commissioner for Mental Health.  He went on to join the executive staff of New York Medical College in 1978, and rose through the ranks of the then second-largest private medical school in the country, responsible for the contractual service relationships between municipal/county governments and the College's School of Medicine to become the Senior Associate Dean of the College.

Under his leadership, the College successfully competed for hundreds of millions of dollars in affiliation contracts from the NYC Health and Hospitals Corporation, pursuant to which the College taught and supervised medical students and resident physicians, and provided direct patient care in three large municipal hospitals.  Largely due to Marc's advocacy, the College also procured the resources necessary to convert Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center from a community hospital to a Level 3 Trauma Center for the region, providing on-site, round-the-clock medical expertise and surgical intervention for victims of catastrophic trauma, thereby saving countless lives.

On multiple occasions, affiliation contract funding reductions negatively affected support for the College's educational and patient care initiatives in the municipal hospital sector.  Marc responded by partnering with the medical leadership and developing regionalized programs between the hospitals so as to reduce costs, while retaining critical services in both communities.  One such regionalized service was Neonatology, which focuses on newborns within the first sixty days of life.

Having a clear sense of evolving national and state health care financing policy, Marc understood that for medical schools to continue to attract and retain talent, physicians needed to have the opportunity to supplement their salaries through participation in various health insurance programs.  Consequently, Marc was the chief architect of the College's Faculty Practice Plans, within its affiliated municipal hospitals.  Because of these plans, in which over twelve hundred physicians participated, tens of millions of dollars were brought into the system annually to supplement physician compensation.  This promoted the retention of difficult to recruit providers in medically underserved areas such as East Harlem and the South Bronx.

After leaving the College in 1986, Marc continued in the private practice of health law, until Parkinson's Disease necessitated his retirement in late 1999.

Marc was the proverbial Man For All Seasons, whose interests ranged far and wide.  He was a very gifted lawyer and a true intellectual who was nonetheless always unassuming, warm and approachable.

Marc's avocation was natural history.  This passion led to his serving on the board of Bat Conservation International, from 1997 to 2012, where he played an important leadership role during the transition from the founding CEO, Merlin Tuttle to his successors.  He also served on the board of The American Bird Conservancy, from 2001 to 2007.  He was a tireless world traveler who was most at home in "those far away places with strange-sounding names" studying their native fauna and flora and aiding in their conservation.  His unfailing enthusiasm, depth of knowledge and well-developed sense of humor ensured he was always a pleasure to travel with.  During one such particularly strenuous expedition in 2002 into the wilds of Papua New Guinea Marc's symptoms were being troublesome.  He was cared for by native porters and villagers who tried very hard to persuade him to stay permanently, even writing after his return home to invite him to return to PNG to live, and be cared for by them.

Marc was also a passionate bibliophile, amassing an impressive natural history library, in addition to books on a very wide range of topics.

Marc is widely hailed as an inspiration to many people, from his dauntless refusal to bow to his Parkinson's Disease to giving sage advice to friends on subjects from estate planning, to assistance in the various ramifications of producing a number of natural history books and field guides they were writing.

Marc is survived by his beloved wife of 34 years, Kate; his brother Peter (Mary Beth); his sisters Deborah, and Rachel (Ed McGann); a niece; a nephew; and cousins both in the States and in England, who held him dear.  In addition to the family and many friends who knew and loved him all too briefly, this gentle and generous spirit is also survived by countless strangers who will never know his name, but who are alive today because of Marc's brilliant problem-solving skills, and his boundless commitment to respond to injustice.

Donations in lieu of flowers to The Rainforest Trust, The American Bird Conservancy, Bat Conservation International, The Xerces Society, The Michael J. Fox  Foundation.



 
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07/19/19 09:13 AM #1    

Ruth Olnowich (Tschudin)

 

I'm in awe with all Marc accomplished, but I recall him standing out already in first grade.He wasin my reading group and while the rest of us were strugging with our first expoure to reading, he read like a "house onfire." I've never heard anyone read with such speed and efficiency (though in a monotone because of the speed)--he was reading faster than we could hear!! I met his brrother Peter at Peter's (and my sister Janet's) 50th reunion nd asked about Marc, always the uiet, kind gentleman)and he told meof Marc's health battle. I pray that he is scurey in theloving hands of our Creator feeling the gratitude and seeing the great effects his accomplishments on life produced for so many fortunate people! 

 


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