Charles W. McElfresh M.D.

Dr. Charles Warner McElfresh, MD, of Wayne on October 12, 2015 after a long illness. Born in Philadelphia on May 25, 1932 to the Charles and Anna (nee Egan) McElfresh, he was raised in Upper Darby, attended Bywood and Drexel Hill Elementary and graduated from Upper Darby High School in May of 1950. He earned a B.A. in biology at Gettysburg College and his medical degree from Temple University School of Medicine in 1958, interning at Conemaugh Valley Memorial Hospital in Johnstown where he met his wife Sarah (nee Caroff) in 1959. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in Charleston, South Carolina, where his daughter Theresa was born in 1960. Moving back to Philadelphia, he did a two-year fellowship in anesthesiology at Temple, practicing as an anesthesiologist at Bryn Mawr Hospital for four years. In 1971 he completed a four-year fellowship in Child and Adult Psychiatry at the Irving Schwartz Institute and practiced psychiatry for 37 years until his retirement. He is survived by his wife Sarah, children Terry McElfresh Downes, Charles McElfresh, Andrew McElfresh and 7 grandchildren: Megan, Melanie and Timmy Downes, Ian and Jack McElfresh, and Dashiell and Daisy McElfresh, along with sister Anne McElfresh of San Francisco. His father was an artist and editor at the Philadelphia Bulletin, and Charles was a curious and gifted man who instilled in his children the sense that there was nothing they couldn't do. A skilled craftsman, avid reader and fisherman, he was an organic gardener who built garages, raised tropical fish, built handmade Tiffany lamps, squirrel-proof birdfeeders and tons of fudge in a lifetime of doing and making things. He leaves behind his sense of wonder, and sense of humor. Relatives and friends are invited to his Memorial Service 1:00 PM, Saturday October 17, 2015 at St. Katharine of Siena Church, 104 S. Aberdeen Ave, Wayne, PA 19087.