ALAN ROSENTHAL

ROSENTHAL--Dr. Alan, died peacefully on Friday, December 13, 2013, surrounded by loving family and friends. Dr. Rosenthal's passionate dedication to healing led to a remarkable career in neurosurgery, with a subspecialty in pediatric neurosurgery. After graduating from Yale University (1958) and the University of Virginia Medical School (1962), he pursued his fascination with the neurosciences to a residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the Children's Medical Center of Boston, where he served as Chief Resident and Teaching Fellow in Neurosurgery at Harvard Medical School in 1968. His remarkable ability to perform intricate surgical procedures and his intense interest in pediatrics took him to Long Island, where, as a founding member of Long Island Neurosurgical Associates, he developed the first pediatric neurosurgical practice in the region. He then left LINA to become Co-Director of Winthrop-University Hospital's Institute for Neurosciences and Chief of their Division of Neurosurgery, where he was a principal player in the development of Winthrop's Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit--the first of its kind on Long Island. Dr. Rosenthal was also instrumental in bringing the first CyberKnife, used to perform non-invasive robotic radio-surgery, to the NY metropolitan area. Additionally, Dr. Rosenthal was an Attending Neurosurgeon at several other Long Island hospitals, including Long Island Jewish Medical Center, North Shore University Hospital, St. Francis Hospital, Nassau County Medical Center and South Nassau Community Hospital. He was a contributing author to three major textbooks on pediatric neurosurgery, and his bibliography includes over 25 articles in peer reviewed journals. He has been an invited speaker at many international symposia. His greatest gift, however, found expression in the personal side of medicine. He remained in contact with many of his first patients, and followed their lives as they grew into adulthood. He continued to receive birthday and holiday greetings from several of them until he died. Dr. Rosenthal loved to play golf and tennis and to listen to baroque and classical music. He drove high performance sports cars and read volumes of history and international intrigue with equal relish. He delighted in a high-spirited conversation about history or politics. But his close family and friends remember him most often saying "What can I do to help?" Alan Rosenthal's memory survives as a blessing in the thousands of lives he touched and saved, but most especially in the hearts of his beloved and devoted wife Enid Feldman Rosenthal; daughters Amy Ilyse Rosenthal and Nina Michelle Rosenthal Fusillo; son-in-law Michael Fusillo; grandsons Nathaniel James and Benjamin Paul Fusillo; brothers-in-law Barry and Joel Feldman; and sisters-in-law Diane and Tina Feldman. Services will be held at Beth Israel Memorial Chapel in Boynton Beach, FL on Tuesday, December 17 at 1:45pm.