Dr. Harold G. Kretzing M.D.

Having spent a lifetime helping, healing, and comforting thousands of patients across the country and around the world, Dr. Harold George Kretzing passed away on Thursday, April 4, 2019.

Dr. Kretzing entered the world by way of Dauphin County, the son of Harold and Gladys Hall Kretzing. A 1951 graduate of Lemoyne High School, he went on to on to earn his biochemistry degree at Albright College-where he also first met his life-long sweetheart, Jean Hagenbuch. The pair reconnected in Philadelphia when Dr. Kretzing was attending Medical School at Temple University, marrying in 1958. Dr. Kretzing earned his M.D. from the institution in 1959.

From there, they headed north, where Dr. Kretzing spent four years with the U.S. Public Health Service. He was deployed to a Coast Guard Cutter stationed in the North Atlantic coast, and also served public health hospitals and clinics from Portland to Boston to Baltimore. As the family began to grow with the additions of Carol and George, they made their way back to Pennsylvania, where Dr. Kretzing opened a family practice in Carlisle with a high school friend, Dr. Robert Gasull. They'd later be joined by Dr. Robert Hollen, Dr. George Branscum, Jr., and Dr. Kenneth Guistwite. The Kretzings settled in a big brick house on Ridge Street, which they'd fill with four more children-Dale, John, Craig, and Steve-several cats and dogs, and a lot of soccer balls. Over the course of the next 40 years, Dr. Kretzing would go on to practice at the Belvedere Medical Center, serve as a physician for Carlisle High School, Dickinson College, and even the Washington Redskins, and volunteer at the state health center's tuberculosis clinic. Every other year, he'd criss-cross Europe with the "Sound of America" band and chorus group as their traveling physician. After retiring, he continued to volunteer at the Sadler Health Center, two days a week for six years, and served on its board of directors. The Health Center honored him by naming their health education center after him. In the years that followed, he received countless other honors and recognitions, including Albright College's Distinguished Alumnus Award and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Partnership for Better Health. But anyone who knew Dr. Kretzing knew that he didn't measure his achievements by the awards he'd acquired, but rather, simply, by the people he'd helped.

Beyond his medical service, Dr. Kretzing was an active member of the First Presbyterian Church-where he sang in the choir and served in various leadership positions-for more than 50 years. He loved singing the "Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's Messiah, regularly and good-naturedly beating his friends and family in countless games of Boggle and Scrabble, vacations in the Endless Mountains of PA and on a wooded lake in New Hampshire, and spending hours meticulously tending a garden that produces some of the best asparagus you've ever tasted.

If a life is best measured by the other lives it's touched, then Dr. Kretzing lived a very good life, indeed-and heaven just got itself a very good doctor.

Dr. Kretzing is survived by his loving wife of 60 years, Jean Hagenbuch Kretzing of Carlisle; his daughter Carol Brubaker (Tom) of Perkasie, PA; five sons-George Kretzing of Carlisle, Dale Kretzing (Beth) of Lincoln University, PA; John Kretzing (Michele) of Erie, PA; Craig Kretzing (Jen) of Nottingham, PA; Steven Kretzing (Megan) of Carlisle; and 22 grandchildren. He is also survived by his sister, Mary Jane Gockley, of Broken Bow, NE, and many nieces and nephews.

The family will be receiving visitors in the Sanctuary at Carlisle First Presbyterian Church on Friday, April 12 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. The Memorial Service will be held at First Presbyterian Church on Saturday, April 13 at 11 a.m.

Per Dr. Kretzing's wishes, In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Sadler Health Center or the First Presbyterian Church. Visit www.EwingBrothers.com to send condolences.