Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

George S. Pap, M.D., D.D.S., 1917 to 2006

2007; Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; Volume: 119; Issue: 7 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1097/01.prs.0000260713.59582.84

1529-4242

Lucia Fischer Pap,

Diversity and Career in Medicine

George S. Pap, M.D., D.D.S., died quietly in his sleep on Friday, July 28, 2006, at Alterra Wynwood of Chapel Hill, after a long illness. He was a gentle man, a gentleman, and an exceptionally loving husband and father. He also loved his European family very much. He visited often and for more than 40 years helped four generations, including his parents, sister, niece, and grandniece, in any way possible, including financially, medically, and educationally. Born in Budapest, Hungary, and raised in Czechoslovakia, he graduated with degrees in medicine and dentistry from Charles University, Prague. He then trained in general and plastic and reconstructive surgery at Michael Reese and Cook County hospitals, in Chicago, Illinois, and at Baylor University, in Houston, Texas. Winner of the Sir Simon Marx Scholarship in plastic surgery, he received additional training in England at Queen Victoria Hospital, East Grinstead, and Frenchay Hospital, in Bristol. In 1956 he opened the first department of plastic and reconstructive surgery of Israel’s National Sick Fund, at Beilinson Hospital, becoming its youngest department head. He practiced in Rockford, Illinois, for 38 years and was on the faculty of the University of Illinois. He was visiting faculty in the cleft palate clinic at Northwestern University in Chicago. At the University of Illinois in Rockford, he opened the first laboratory for microsurgery and nerve regeneration, for physicians and medical students. He was a charter member and past president of the Midwestern Association of Plastic Surgeons and a past president of the Medical-Dental Staff at Swedish-American Hospital, Rockford, Illinois. Other hospital and medical society affiliations, published or presented research papers, and book chapters are too numerous to mention. He was a reviewer of international abstracts for Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery for 30 years. During World War II, he joined the Freedom Fighters as a senior medical student in a mountain camp hospital in Czechoslovakia, treating injured soldiers who had fought against Hitler’s advancing army. Later in his career, he spent weeks repairing cleft palates and cleft lips in infants, under the auspices of Interplast International, in Tacna, Peru, and San Pedro Sula, Honduras. This work helped severely deformed babies become normal, beautiful, smiling children who could eat, swallow, and form words on their own for the first time after their operations. He also spent 6 weeks in 1984 in the Department of Plastic Surgery and Burn Center at Rambam Hospital, in Haifa, Israel, helping to treat wounded and burned soldiers, both Arab and Israeli. A member of Temple Beth El, in Rockford, Illinois, for 38 years, he endowed, with his wife, an adult education fund to honor the memory of their mothers. He is survived by his wife of almost 48 years, Dr. Lucia Fischer Pap; a son, Charles (Diane) Pap; a daughter, Claudia (Allen) Pap Mangel; and five grandchildren, Toby, Beni, Elli, Kevin, and Sylvia. He is also survived by one sister, Madame Elena Piknova, and cousins, nieces, and nephews. Dr. Pap moved from Rockford, Illinois, to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, with his wife in 2000.Figure: George S. Pap, M.D., D.D.S., 1917 to 2006.