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Tanya Lysenko posted a condolence
Sunday, January 29, 2023
Q: What 3 words best describe Donald and why?
A: Honest Doctor
Kind Person
Great Boss
I worked at NJMS in the 70s, he was the Head of the Dept. When I moved to FL I had occasion to call him for advice on a medical issue. Two times, he saved my life.
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Reed Louria posted a condolence
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
So great to read such nice things. Such a loss for all of us. Find additional remembrances for Donald at https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/nytimes/name/donald-louria-obituary?id=14069327.
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Lewis Miller posted a condolence
Monday, August 16, 2021
Don and I, along with Marvin Sears MD (still living) were classmates and friends at Poly Prep, ranked #1, #3 #4 in that order academically. As a medical editor and educator, Don and I renewed our friendship when he was at Cornell, and continued when he moved to Newark, where I was a lecturer on the faculty. He was always a person of outstanding intellect, thoughtful research and a great athlete as well. I am sorry that our friendship lapsed in recent years as we aged. Please extend my sympathy to the family. His accomplishments will survive him by many years.
Lew Miller
lewisamiller@gmail.com
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Bruce D. Fisher, MD, MACP, FIDSA posted a condolence
Sunday, August 15, 2021
Dr. Don Louria was utterly unique among the members of our profession, for his scholarship, his clinical acumen, his unmatched command of the medical literature, his articulate mastery of the English language, and his personal and professional integrity—to name just some of his outstanding attributes. It was my privilege to train with his dear friend and colleague, Dr. Donald Armstrong, in the mid-1970’s, giving me many opportunities to benefit from his wisdom at Intercity Infectious Diseases Rounds. His bow ties were symbols of his individuality and impeccable taste. (When he came to my hospital as a guest speaker, I had privately cajoled him into using bow ties that were not pre-tied, which he always did thereafter!) The number of lives that have been saved or improved because of his work and teaching cannot be counted. He will always be a treasured teacher and colleague to us who were privileged to know him. —Bruce D. Fisher, MD, MACP, FIDSA
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Isabel Cunningham posted a condolence
Friday, August 13, 2021
I contribute this, not as Don's friend, but as his groupie, to convey to young and old what a huge loss this is for the world of medical education. For many years, I attended Intercity Infectious Disease Rounds on Mondays that he and another Don created decades ago that rotated around hospitals whose I.D. staffs would present their year's best "stump-the-stars" cases of weird infections. An infected bite on someone who just flew in from a jungle abroad is an example. We went to hear Don speak up to explain why this was obviously some esoteric bacteria that no one but his well-traveled I.D. expert peers had ever seen. They skillfully competed to display how real giants in medicine elucidate, and cure, life-threatening problems like some of these were, and fascinated the rest of us. This was not spectacular because of the esoteric infections, but because real experts were generously sharing their expertise in solving perplexing medical problems, and were dedicated to improving education by sharing what they had lived. I brought along every medical student I could find, and recall each one was enthralled. Soon after Don and his peers had given up the effort to get to these meetings and find parking space all over the city, the conference changed. It became fancy colorful graphics on a screen and instructions that no one should blurt out answers from the audience. Blurting is precisely why we all went, always hoping Don would be blurting, and reassuring us that careful medical decision-making was not dead. I stopped attending. Soon thereafter, these decades-old rounds stopped altogether. So did this kind of expertise-sharing. That is why many of us went into medicine and regret what has happened to weaken it.
An equally strong impression Don Louria made on me came the many times I spotted him across a room at a Met Museum exhibit opening. Although I wanted to say hello, his attention was always squarely focused on a painting and on his wife. They looked like a comfortable pair that anyone would envy, obviously sharing impressions together and oblivious to everyone around. I saw them at numerous exhibits and never dared to interrupt. That is a lovely memory of Don that I will keep with me, while I wish the world that so needs him had him longer.
Isabel Cunningham MD
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Ken Johanson posted a condolence
Friday, August 13, 2021
My wife Wynn and I met Don and Barbara 25 years ago on a whale watching trip to Baja. We got along so well during our week together that we decided to get in touch when we got home to New Jersey. That was the beginning of a wonderful friendship. Don and Barbara were both such caring and interesting people. Wynn and I shared many enjoyable dinners with them and they both attended and participated in Sierra Club events that I helped to organize whenever they could. Their interests and involvements extended well beyond medicine (although Wynn and I did turn to Don on more than one occasion when we were in need of some well-grounded medical advice). Up until the end Don and I continued to have discussions about politics, government and the state of the world. Don never stopped trying to make a difference. I feel fortunate that he and Barbara were part of my life.
Ken Johanson
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Abigail Zuger posted a condolence
Thursday, August 12, 2021
To the Louria family: I didn't know Don personally, but he was a fixture at our weekly Intercity Infectious Disease rounds in New York City. He sat in the front row for decades, commenting on tough infectious disease cases, citing the literature nobody else remembered, and generally keeping the discussion relevant and intelligent. When Don started to talk, everybody else stopped. He taught us all a lot, and his devotion to that now obsolete process of education by case and commentary was perhaps the best lesson of all. We, his colleagues and de facto students, will all miss him enormously.
Abigail Zuger MD
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Jeff Thelen posted a condolence
Tuesday, August 10, 2021
Don, we became more than friends, we became family and you will be sorely missed from my life.