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CAROLA BLITZMAN GUTTMACHER EISENBERG M.D.

1917 - 2021

CAROLA EISENBERG Obituary

EISENBERG, Carola Blitzman Guttmacher M.D. September 15, 1917 - March 11, 2021 Born and raised in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Carola was one of very few women in her medical school class. Driven by a strong social conscience instilled by her parents, she came to the US in 1945 to further her training in child psychiatry, working with Leo Kanner, at Johns Hopkins who had recently first described and coined the term autism. In Baltimore, she met and married Manfred Guttmacher and had two sons, Laurence, a Professor of Psychiatry and Medical Humanities at the University of Rochester and Alan, retired Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Development at the National Institutes of Health. She practiced as a child psychiatrist in Baltimore until 1967. After Manfred's death, she married Leon Eisenberg and moved to Cambridge, beginning to work at MIT, where she rose to become Dean of Student Affairs. In 1978, she became Dean of Student Affairs at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Eisenberg's concern for refugee health and the state of the politically oppressed led her to join several other physicians in founding Physicians for Human Rights, which went on to share the Nobel Peace Prize. She remained active with PHR and with the Institute for Health Improvement for the remainder of her life. She had a gift that made strangers quickly pour out the most intimate details of their lives. All those around her had the sense that she cared deeply about them, and the reality is that she did. After living independently in Cambridge into her second century, she spent the last three years of her life at the Commons in Lincoln, receiving extraordinary care for which her family is most grateful. Even more impressive than her remarkable career was her intense and genuine interest in everyone she met. She is survived by her children Laurence Guttmacher and Alan Guttmacher, stepchildren Mark Eisenberg and Kathy Eisenberg, and numerous grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and nieces and nephews, whom she adored. A Celebration of her Life will occur later this year. She requested that any contributions in her memory be made to Physicians for Human Rights at phr.org/donate-phr

View the online memorial for Carola Blitzman Guttmacher M.D. EISENBERG

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Published by Boston Globe from Mar. 15 to Mar. 16, 2021.

Memories and Condolences
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4 Entries

Trasee Clayborne Bradley

February 19, 2022

I apologize for the delay in sharing this, but please accept my sincerest condolences.

My mother worked in the same mezzanine suite with Dr. Eisenberg at Harvard Medical School for 19 years, so I've known her my entire life. As a kid she would always have great chats with me and invite me to play my violin in her office. I have so many great and special memories of Dr. Eisenberg, including being able to bring my husband and daughters to meet her in Cambridge. 103 phenomenal years and a truly amazing legacy.
God bless!

Norma Rosenberg

April 15, 2021

I saw Dr Carola Guttmacher as a patient once in Baltimore when I was 19 and having a difficult experience in college. My husband and I visited with her in Boston 4 years ago when she was 99, so I could thank her for giving me such wonderful guidance in that one visit, which was enough to get me back on the right path. I’m so glad we spent two hours with her and I had the chance to let her know what her advice meant to me in 1963 in Baltimore. I recorded a video of her speaking to us and saying what it meant to her that I came to see her ....she said I was only the second or third patient in her career who had come back years later to let her know what her counsel meant to me as a teenager. I never forgot her. I’d like to share the video with her sons. Norma Rosenberg
[email protected]

Jenny Stone

March 16, 2021

Dr Carola Eisenberg came to Harvard Medical School the same year that our class started our four years there. She and her husband Leon were such genuine, caring people. They were always our encouraging mentors and advocates. Thank you for all that you did for us, Carola. You were the role model we all aspire to be.
Jenny Stone
HMS ‘82

Mary Lou (Peduzzi) Lord

March 16, 2021

How lucky was I to have worked for Carola? Very lucky indeed. My years at Harvard Medical School were truly wonderful, and I am forever grateful to have known her. My thoughts and love to Alan, Larry and families.

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