Dr. B. George WISOFF

WISOFF--Dr. Bernard George. Dr. Bernard George Wisoff, cardio-thoracic surgeon, passed away peacefully at his home in Manhasset Hills on September 29th at the age of 95. A graduate of Midwood High School, Union College and NYU College of Medicine, he did residencies at the Bronx V.A., Jacobi Hospital, Miami's Jackson Memorial, and Mount Sinai as a Gaisman Fellow. He was staff physician in Thoracic Surgery at Booth Memorial, and Brookdale. A U. S. Army captain from 1959 - 1961, he proudly completed his tour of duty as a surgeon at the 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany. In later years he served as Professor of Surgery at the State University of Stony Brook, and as Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center and then at St. Francis Hospital where he brought in colleagues still running one of the finest heart practices in the world to date. He served on the Board of Directors of the Nassau Heart Association. At the forefront of the development of bypass surgery, in his lifetime he performed over 30,000 operations impacting the lives of his patients and their families. In January of 1976 he became a media sensation after he headed a team of Long Island Jewish Hospital surgeons that used portions of a pig's heart to successfully fashion two new valves and a new channel from the lungs for an eight year old boy. Noted for his warmth and wry sense of humor, after retirement he studied philosophy at Queens College Continuing Education, took up sailing and celestial navigation as a member of the Knickerbocker and then the Manhasset Yacht Clubs, spent winter sojourns in Siesta Key and summers in Shelter Island with wife Rebekah, taught the grandchildren kayaking. An accomplished pianist and chamber music flautist, he and Rebekah were regular attendees at the Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera. The son of Esther and Percy Wisoff, beloved brother to the late Dr. Hugh Wisoff, he is survived by Rebekah; his children Jill, Mona, and Peter; his grandchildren James Bloom, Amanda Bloom, and Amanda's spouse Zachary Swanson, his great- grandchild Ryah; sister-in-law Irene and Wisoff nephews Jeffrey, Marshall, Andrew, and Douglas Pensak, and nieces Janice and Karen Pensak Flynn. A gravesite service was performed at Beth David Cemetery on October 1. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations in his memory be made to the American Heart Association.