Dr. Jon M. Valigorsky

1941 - 2022

Dr. Jon M. Valigorsky, widower of Helga Valigorsky (1938-2013), died of complications from an infection at Berkshire Medical Center in the early morning of Monday, October 3, 2022. He was 81 years old.

Family and friends remember him as a good humored mild mannered physican & outstanding diagnostician, an avid gardener, an ardent Formula 1 fan, a dedicated volunteer, and a cherished husband & father.

Jon was born on August 21, 1941 in Chambersburg PA to Madeline Wise Valigorsky and John Valigorsky. During his early childhood, he witnessed the many pastoral pleasures of living in the countryside, feeding pigs and chickens. Jon's love of cars and speed started at the tender age of 4, when he had all night leg cramps from pedaling his first tricycle at high speeds.

Jon's childhood as an Army brat led to study in Germany in the late 1950s at branch of the American University in Munich. In between working at a bierhaus selling beer and sausages, the years of 1959 through 1961 saw Jon photograph several European Formula 1 races. His Leica images were published in Road and Track Magazine.

In 1962, he relocated for study to the University of Maryland in Baltimore, and in 1963 met his future bride Helga at the party of a mutual friend. In 1967, after four years of dating, Helga and Jon were married at a small ceremony in Shippensburg, PA.

With fatherhood in 1970 came research work in Hematology for the University of Maryland hospital in Baltimore. In 1976 Jon took a position as Associate Professor of Pathology for the University of Massachusetts teaching program at Berkshire Medical Center, and he & his family came to live in Pittsfield.

Jon dedicated countless hours of his medical expertise to the local community, through various roles for the American Red Cross, decades of work as the local Medical Examiner, and time on the Medical Board of Berkshire Health Systems. He retired from medicine in 2008, and was nonetheless named Physician of the Year by Berkshire Health Systems in 2013.

Dr. Valigorsky's expansive rhododendron collection started with Helga's initial request for a purple rhododendron in the backyard, and grew over the years of hundreds of bushes and one of the best rhododendron gardens of the NorthEast.

He is survived by his only daughter Ms. Astrida Valigorsky of New York, NY, his sister Janice Weiser of McMinnville Or, his brother Joel Valigorsky of Mechanicsburg, PA, his niece Marie Valigorsky of Camp Hill PA, his nephew Mark Valigorsky of Milford, CT, and his nephew Alexander Kroger of Hamburg, Germany.

Funeral Notice:

A memorial service and celebration of Dr. Valigorsky's life will be held on the 3rd of June in Dr. Valigorsky's garden on Tor Ct. from 3-8pm. Burial will be private. In lieu of flowers for his passing, he requests donations be made in his name to the University of Maryland Medical School in Baltimore.