DR. DON CARL BIENFANG

1938 - 2023

BIENFANG, Dr. Don Carl Chief of Neuro-ophthalmology at Brigham and Woman's Hospital. Don Carl Bienfang of Lincoln, MA, died on December 9, 2023 at the age of 84. Born in Elmhurst, IL, the son of Esther (Kuhlow) and Mark Bienfang, Don held an undergraduate degree in Mathematics from the University of Illinois Champaign-Urbana (1960) and medical degree from Harvard Medical School (1965). As a medical student, Don worked at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, becoming its first respiratory therapist in 1961. Don returned to the Brigham in 1972 and, with his partner, Leo T. Chylack, Jr., founded the Ophthalmology group, beginning a nearly five-decade-long career at the Brigham. As a distinguished surgeon and clinician, Don was known for his expertise and depth of knowledge, his warmth and his wonderfully dry and intellectual sense of humor. Don was a true believer in listening and talking to his patients, often in their native language, to allow the patient to guide the diagnosis. Don felt honored to learn from icons in the field and, in turn, Don served the Boston and international communities as a surgeon and teacher of neuro-ophthalmology with dedication and love. Along with the multitude of patients for whom he cared over five decades, Don's professional legacy lives on in the doctors he mentored and what is now known as Bienfang's test for myasthenia gravis, a simple non-invasive test for a difficult-to-diagnose auto-immune disease. Don met Denise, his wife of sixty years, in 1961, married in 1964; and leaves behind two sons, Matthew Bienfang (Elizabeth) of Hingham, MA and Joshua Bienfang of Bethesda, MD. Don was a devoted husband and a loving father, and he enjoyed and cultivated the ability to send Denise into helpless peals of laughter with his unexpected humor. Don and Denise shared an independent-minded approach to life, and in 1974, they moved to Lincoln to embrace the back-to-the-land ethos of the time. In Lincoln, Don built a blacksmith forge, raised chickens and tended a large garden. Don's chickens and their homegrown eggs became a feature of the family and community, and tending them served as a meditative evening pastime for him. He was not a slave to convention and had a wonderful enthusiasm for trying new things, including baking bread, making root beer, motorcycling, playing mandolin and painting. His sons fondly remember Saturday trips into Boston to watch kung-fu movies in Chinatown and then to the North End to get cannoli and espresso. Together, Don and Denise played tennis, traveled widely and turned a house on Cape Cod into a gathering point for their family and friends. As Grandpa-Fang to his six grandchildren, Micah, Britt, Abby, Caroline, Lily and Sam, he loved to take them up to the chickens to hunt for eggs or to ride the tractor with him as he mowed the fields in Lincoln. Relatives and friends are invited to attend the Memorial Service at 2:00 PM, on January 20, 2024, at the First Parish Church, 4 Bedford Road in Lincoln.

View the online memorial for Dr. Don Carl BIENFANG