DR. JOSEPH WEISS M.D.

WEISS DR. JOSEPH J. MD, MACP. Dr. Weiss was born to Otto and Fay Weiss in Detroit, Michigan on March 22, 1934. He was a graduate of the University of Michigan in 1955 and its Medical School in 1961. He interrupted his training to serve in the US Public Health Service, which took him to many rural regions of the United States. Dr. Weiss joined Care-Medico to provide medical services in pre-Soviet Afghanistan for two years, and then went to what was then South Vietnam to care for civilian casualties of the war. Upon his return to the US, he completed an internal medicine residency and a rheumatology fellowship. From 1971 to 1981, Dr. Weiss served as a member of the faculty of the University of Michigan Medical School and as an intern and later staff physician at Wayne County General Hospital, where he served as Director of Emergency services for five years. Since 1981, until less than a week before his death, he ran a medical practice as a solo practitioner and was an active medical staff member of St. Mary Mercy Hospital in Livonia. Over the years, he held the offices of Chief of Staff at St. Mary Mercy Hospital and chair of its Continuing Medical Education Committee. Dr. Weiss was also a former President of the Michigan Society of Internal Medicine and of the Wayne County Medical Society. At various times, his responsibilities included Chair of the Education Committee and the Scientific Committee of the Michigan Rheumatism Society, and he volunteered his services as a clinician for the underserved at Covenant Community Care in Southwest Detroit for many years. Since 1981 he has been the author of the patient education column "Arthritis Today" for the Observer/ Eccentric newspapers. He has published 36 papers and numerous textbook chapters on aspects of rheumatology, particularly on the structure and conditions of the shoulder, as well as hundreds of editorials on medical politics and economics. Many of his articles were published in the Detroit Medical News, where he served as Editor-in-Chief. In 1998, Dr. Weiss was a recipient of the Michigan Chapter of the American College of Physicians' Laureate Award; some years later, he received their Lifetime Achievement Award; and earlier this year, American College of Physicians honored him with the title of Master of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Weiss was preceded in death by his wife, Ruth Louise Weiss (neé Beck). He is survived by his sister Edith King, his sons Steven (Sharon) and David (Linda), and his grandsons Samuel and Broderick. He is also survived by his companion Marilyn Shapiro and her children, Laurence (Lisa) Shapiro, Elizabeth (Ted) Pena and Jessica (Lawrence) Miller, and her grandchildren Emma, Zoe, Violet, Oscar, Isaac and Abraham. SERVICES WERE HELD AT THE IRA KAUFMAN CHAPEL ON TUESDAY. 248-569-0020. www.irakaufman.com