Dr. Fred S. Kantor

1931 - 2022

Dr. Fred S. Kantor
Dr. Fred S. Kantor, Beloved Professor of Medicine, Dies at 90
Celebrated immunologist and teacher, he trained generations of physicians during his 56-year tenure at Yale School of Medicine, where he was formally titled the "Paul B. Beeson Professor of Medicine" and informally titled a "Jedi Master."
Fred Stuart Kantor, whose dedication to training young doctors continued right up until his death, died on May 28 at Yale New Haven Hospital, where he had faithfully worked for 56 years. He was 90 years old.
His wife, Linda Kantor, said the cause was non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Along with his wife, he is survived by his children, Michael (Kathy Landau), Karen, and Ted (Susan); and seven grandchildren, Emma, Twyla, Rebecca, Alice, Max, Sam, and Isabelle. He was preceded in death by his grandson, Sacha.
Dr. Kantor was born on July 2, 1931, in Brooklyn, NY, the New York City borough he later described as "the brain basket of America." His father, Nathan, was a dentist, and his mother, Sylvia (née Rosenthal), was a lawyer, one of few women admitted to the New York State Bar in 1928.
From his earliest days, Dr. Kantor showed great interest in machines. At age 5, he built his first, an intercom, on a workbench his mother set up for him on their front porch. He rode his bicycle around all five NYC boroughs in the 1930's, collecting parts for the machines he dreamed of building. During WWII, beginning at the age of 12, he worked in a shop repairing radios. Graduating from Brooklyn Technical High School in 1948, he determined that the most interesting machine in the world was the human body and set his sights on becoming a physician.
Dr. Kantor graduated from Union College in 1952, having spent a year at St. Andrews in Scotland and received his medical degree from New York University in 1956. He interned at Barnes Hospital in St. Louis, was a resident at the National Institutes of Health, and became the first fellow in Nobel laureate Dr. Baruch Benacerraf's laboratory at New York University. He joined the faculty at Yale University School of Medicine in 1963.
At the National Institutes of Health, he met and married his wife of 63 years, Linda Silverman. Dr. Kantor served as a lieutenant in the Commissioned Corps of the U.S. Public Health Service, where he became licensed as an airplane pilot. And so began his lifelong passion for flying. Dr. Kantor piloted two international trips on his twin-engine 4-seat airplane custom-fitted with extra fuel tanks. The first journey was to Brazil where he immunized indigenous peoples in the Amazon rainforest, and the second to Bergen, Norway.
During his time at Yale, Dr. Kantor took three sabbatical years, bringing his family and working in Melbourne, Australia and Rehovot, Israel in 1969; Shiraz, Iran, London, England, and Jerusalem, Israel in 1976; and Changsha, China, in 1983.
Dr. Kantor was, according to his colleagues, the "ultimate triple threat": researcher, clinician, and educator. As a researcher, he studied myasthenia gravis and other autoimmune diseases and went on to develop Lymerix, a vaccine to prevent Lyme disease. As a clinician, he served as an attending physician at Yale New Haven Hospital, treating a wide variety of patients while specializing in allergy and immunology. As an educator, he taught generations of medical students, interns, residents, and fellows over a 56-year career.
Attending weekly medical rounds without fail across six decades, Dr. Kantor would always sit in the same seat, next to Drs. Thomas Duffy and Cyrus Kapadia, collectively referred to as the "Jedi Council." Trainees recall they could always count on a brilliant insight from these three revered Masters, often followed by a hilarious footnote from Dr. Kantor.
Foundational in shaping the culture of the Yale School of Medicine, his credo for the school was "Good as any, kinder than most." A man of many pithy pearls of wisdom, Dr. Kantor's former trainees often recite Kantor's Rule: "If a patient is sick, you take an action, and if the patient gets worse, it's probably what you did." Included in that legacy of mentorship is Surgeon General of the United States, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who called Dr. Kantor "an extraordinary man" who "taught me how to detect pneumonia by percussion, among many other skills. Also, I remember Kantor's Rule."
Dr. Kantor enthusiastically joined any quest to help solve a perplexing medical problem or push forward a scientific understanding, often eschewing credit for his own contributions in favor of championing others. In tribute to Dr. Kantor's unique impact, house staff at Yale New Haven Hospital established and annually bestow the Fred Kantor Award to the faculty member they consider to be the best teacher.
A devoted friend, husband, father, and grandfather, Dr. Kantor had many eclectic hobbies outside of medicine, including flying, ham radio, tennis, skiing, boating, collecting antique world maps, dancing with Linda, catnapping, and listening to his beloved Metropolitan Opera broadcast on WQXR.
Although he was proud of his professional accomplishments and those of his trainees, by far the greatest joy of his life was his family, most especially his grandchildren. He and Linda hosted family reunions every summer, took each grandchild on an individual trip to the country of their choice, and called frequently simply to stay in touch. He even checked in on his granddogs. Dr. Kantor tried never to miss a gathering, and even at the most intimate of get-togethers, was often heard to exclaim, "This is a great party!"
He merrily provided family and friends with flight services ("Fred Air") as well as invaluable medical advice ("Fredicare"). Linda grew cucumbers, and he created Dr. Kantor's Sour Pickles, bottling them with a label on which he appeared in his lab coat and stethoscope, promising "The Proof is in the Pucker."
Beacon of wisdom and kindness. Enthusiast. Adventurer. Deeply loved.
Funeral Services will be held at Orange Center Cemetery, 653 Orange Center Rd, Orange, CT, on Tuesday morning May 31st at 11:00am. The Robert E. Shure & Son Funeral Home, New Haven is in care of Arrangements. Shiva Will be Private. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to: The Towers at Tower Lane https://towerlane.org/support/tribute-giving/
Casa Otonãl Inc. https://givegreater.cfgnh.org/organizations/casa-otonal
Yale School of Medicine, where tribute gifts can be made payable to Yale University, indicating "Dr. Mark Siegel's Fund" in the memo field and sent to:
YSM Development
P.O. Box 7611
New Haven, CT 06519
To watch funeral service, sign an online registry book or to leave a message of condolence, please visit; www.shurefuneralhome.com