Albert Lestser Rosenthal

Albert Lestser Rosenthal PRINCETON - Albert Lester Rosenthal of Princeton and Nantucket Island, died April 20, 2011. He was both a dermatologist and a patron of the arts and received many awards for his accomplishments. He was an educator in dermatology and a scholar of art and history. Born in New Bedford, MA, in 1926 to Meyer and Ruth Gourse Rosenthal, he overcame his severe myopia to excel in visual pursuits - dermatology and the visual arts. He had three children, Robert, Jill, and Bruce from his first marriage to Vivian Garfing Greenberg. He married Carol Magruder in 1969. Dr. Rosenthal was the valedictorian of his high school class; he graduated magna cum laude with a B.A. from Tufts University in 1946 and received his M.D. from Tufts in 1951. He was an intern and assistant resident in surgery at Rhode Island Hospital in Providence. He served as a captain in the U.S. Air Force near the end of the Korean War, where he commanded a medical unit. Appointed the dermatologist for a large Air Force base in Texas, he became fascinated by the specialty and returned to complete a residency in dermatology at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He continued as an assistant in dermatology at the New York Skin and Cancer Institute at NYU. He started his distinguished career as a dermatologist in Trenton, NJ in 1958 and continued to serve the community until his retirement from Lawrenceville Dermatology only recently in March 2011. He served as chief of dermatology at both Mercer Hospital and Helene Fuld Hospital and was acting chief at Hamilton Hospital, all in the 1970s. He was a diplomate of the American Board of Dermatology for half a century; a member of the AMA, Mercer County chapter, and a member of the prestigious Noah Worcester Dermatologic Society for many decades. He served as president of the Philadelphia Dermatological Society in 1984. He was consistently listed in America's Top Doctors, Marquis Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Medicine, Who's Who in the Arts and Sciences, and Top Doctors in the New York area. Dr. Rosenthal was widely regarded as a superb clinician and educator, having trained two generations of dermatologists. He was an associate in dermatology at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate Hospital and was appointed clinical professor of dermatology at Hahnemann Medical School in Philadelphia (now Drexel University) in 1987. He published numerous articles in professional journals and taught courses in African-American dermatology and in medical ethics at Penn. He also conducted some of the earliest basic research on chem-peels. Among his other publications, he co-authored the first paper on fluorinated topical steroids in JAMA in 1958. He treated his patients with dignity and respect and viewed his staff as family. Dr. Rosenthal liked to joke that he had two majors: his profession and his abiding passion for the visual arts. With his wife, Carol, he collected German Expressionism, American Art, Pre-Columbian Art, African Art, Oriental Art, and scrimshaw walking sticks (an interest inspired by his New Bedford and Nantucket roots). He and Carol were instrumental in building the collections of the New Jersey State Museum - their great passion. For over 30 years, they contributed significantly and filled in many gaps in the museum's American Arts collections. Dr. Rosenthal served as chairman of the board of the Friends of New Jersey State Museum as well as chairman of the Fine Arts Committee. He was appointed by two different governors to state museum governing boards, where he helped to set policy, working closely with directors and curators. He served as chairman of the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Commission for 18 years, from 1982 to 2000. He was also on the advisory board for American Art of the Newark Museum and was a founding member of the Mercer County Open Space Preservation Board (1992 to 2000). On his 80th birthday, he was honored by a commendation from the State Legislature for his devotion to our state and the arts, along with a letter from then Governor Corzine. In November 2010, the NJ State Museum held a retrospective of the Rosenthals' donations, along with a celebration widely attended by friends, family and the arts community. On that occasion, he and Carol received letters of commendation from both Governor Christie and the Legislature. Dr. Rosenthal also gave generously to other museums. He helped the art department of his "alma mater," Tufts University, and contributed to the Princeton University Art Museum, the Newark Museum, and the Constitution Museum in Salem, MA, and also to the Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Museum of Natural History in New York. He donated sculpture to the Capital Health System's Mercer Campus. Last month, he and Carol were honored by Mercer County Community College as distinguished benefactors. Dr. Rosenthal will be warmly remembered by all who had the privilege of knowing him for his compassion, his sharp wit, and his overwhelming generosity. He is survived by his wife, Carol; his children, Robert (Emmanuelle), Bruce and Jill (Jay Reitschmied); four grandchildren, Peter and Mark Hugick, Sophia and Avery Rosenthal; his sister, Charlotte Winston (Norman); his ex-wife, Vivian Greenberg (Stanton); and four extended families. Funeral services are Thursday, April 21, 2011, at 1 p.m. at the Presbyterian Church of Lawrenceville, 2688 Main St. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to the Friends of New Jersey State Museum, 205 W. State St., POB 530, Trenton, NJ 08525-0530. Funeral arrangements are by Orland's Ewing Memorial Chapel, 1534 Pennington Road, Ewing Township.