Stefan Conrad Schatzki

Bedford - Stefan Conrad Schatzki died on Saturday, January 20, 2024 after a brief illness. He was born in Leipzig, Germany, on July 16, 1931. After the Nazis ascended to power in 1933, his family emigrated to Boston. Stefan subsequently grew up in Belmont, MA, graduating from the town's high school in 1948. He attended Harvard College from 1948-52, singing in the Harvard Glee Club and deciding to pursue medicine while dreaming of becoming an opera singer. He then graduated from Harvard Medical School in 1956, but not before first marrying his foremost love, Virgina Helen Todd, a year earlier. Several years of temporary medical training posts followed, including two years in the army at Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, DC. He spent the 1962-63 year in Sweden on a NIH Fellowship learning interventional radiology, which was only then developing. Upon returning, he joined the Radiology Department at Mr. Auburn Hospital where his father, Richard, was Chair, at that time also moving to Lexington, MA, where he lived for the next 49 years. In 1970 he became Chair of the Department and remained Chair for the next 28 years until his retirement in 1998. This was an exciting time in radiology with the introduction of a plethora of new techniques such as ultrasounds, CTs, and MRIs. The Department was also active in teaching physicians-in-training, including interns from Harvard Medical School, where Stefan was an Assistant and then Associate Clinical Professor. During this time, inspired by his wife, his love of American art blossomed and joined his lifelong loves of tennis, travelling, and, above all, opera. Of his 120 published articles, most were about medicine in American art. In retirement, Stefan worked for a decade at the Fogg Museum at Harvard. He and Ginny moved to the Carleton-Willard Retirement Community in Bedford in 2012. There, he founded and organized a speaker series for several years, sang in the resident chorus, served as a trustee of the Merrimack Repertoire Theatre, and organized medical school reunions. He will be remembered for his determination, zest for life, love of family, and gregarious nature. Stefan is preceded in death by his parents, Greta (1981) and Richard (1992), as well as his brother George (2018). He is survived by his wife of 68 years, Virginia, his sister-in-law Lorraine, his sons Theodore and Todd and their spouses Nora Moosnick and Gretchen McClain, and his five grandchildren Arianna, Chenoa, Louis, Sophie Elise, and Helena. A service celebrating his life will be held later in the year. Individuals interested in remembering Stefan are asked to make a donation to the Celebrity Series of Boston, www.celebrityseries.org.