N. Joel Ehrenkranz M.D.'s Obituary
N. Joel Ehrenkranz, M.D., of Aventura, FL, passed away on Thursday, December 21, 2023 on his 99th birthday. Beloved husband of the late Elaine Ehrenkranz, loving father of Wendy Patterson, Corinne Roth, Fred Ehrenkranz, and Andrea LaMar, brother of the late Gilbert Ehrenkranz and Ruth Levkoff, cherished grandfather of seven, and dear friend of caregiver Neide DePadua. A veteran of WWII, he enlisted as a commissioned officer at age 17 in the US Navy V-12 program, then served as a Pharmacist Mate, 3rd Class, before medical school. During the Korean War, before medical residency, he served as a 1st lieutenant in US Army Medical Corps (1951-1953).
Graduate of Yale University, BS, Class of 1945W, and Yale School of Medicine, MD, 1949. Internship (1949-1950) and residencies (1950-1951; 1953-1954) at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Teaching Fellow at Harvard Medical School (1953-1954), Research Fellow at Harvard and Boston Universities, Massachusetts General and Massachusetts Memorial Hospitals (1955-1956), Markle Scholar in Medical Science (1959-1964). University of Miami School of Medicine: Instructor (1957), Assistant Professor (1957-1961), Associate Professor of Medicine (1961-1967), Professor of Medicine (1967-1974), Chief of Infectious Disease Division, Department of Medicine (1957-1972), Founder and Acting Chairman, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health (1969-1972), Adjunct Professor of Medicine (1974-1989). Cedars of Lebanon Hospital, Full-time Chief of Medicine (1972-1977).
He had a special interest in the public health aspects of infectious diseases. He worked with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on measures to limit hospital-acquired infections and was a charter member of the Surgical Infection Society. He founded the Florida Consortium for Infection Control, which he served as Director (1972-1986) and Director Emeritus thereafter. As a consultant to the Florida Department of Public Health and the Pan American Health Organization, he helped to identify and contain outbreaks of insect-borne encephalitis and dengue virus.
Distinguished infectious disease physician, lover of history, travel, art and music, Sherlock Holmes and Gilbert & Sullivan: “I’ve got a little list; he never would be missed.” But Dad, we say, “You shall be missed.”
Chapel Service will be held on Sunday, December 24, 2023 at 12pm at Levitt-Weinstein Blasberg-Rubin-Zilbert Memorial Chapel, 18840 W. Dixie Highway, North Miami Beach, FL 33180, (305) 932-2700, to be followed by interment at Menorah Cemetery in Clifton, NJ. Contributions may be made to the N. Joel Ehrenkranz ‘45W BS, ’49 MD Dean’s Fund for Literacy in Epidemiology at Yale University, details forthcoming.
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