WILLIAM BORKOWSKY

1947 - 2021

BORKOWSKY--Dr. William "Bill", a pediatric infectious disease specialist, compassionate healer and mentor to many and whose pioneering work on HIV led to interventions that significantly reduced mother-to-child viral transmission, died on March 14 at Memorial Sloan Kettering. He was 74. The son of Gitl Fuchs and David Borkowsky, Bill was born on March 6, 1947 in a displaced persons camp in Germany and came to New York as a child. Beloved by all who knew him, Bill was curious, empathic and insightful - as a physician and a human being. For most of his career Bill was a professor of pediatric infectious diseases and immunology at NYU/Bellevue. After graduating from City College, he earned a medical degree from NYU and for 30 years was division chief of pediatric infectious diseases at NYU/Bellevue; during the peak of the AIDS crisis Bill was director of its clinical and virology labs. An early advocate and investigator in pediatric HIV and with over 250 papers bearing his name, Bill developed more sensitive tests to detect HIV in children and was among the first to treat them with a 3-drug combination, now the standard of care. He was a pioneer in immunology and his research on the interplay between infection and immunity is now the basis of emerging work on how to one day cure HIV. Bill was quick to encourage and offer advice to his students, often with a summation of the literature flecked with references to "Lawrence of Arabia" or "Casablanca." Bill was an avid swimmer and runner, and in 1968 he qualified for the U.S. Olympic fencing team; he was later inducted into the City College Sports Hall of Fame. Bill cultivated a family of diverse people, who like him were passionate about ending AIDS in children. Every day after work he would walk home to the West Village, arm in arm with his beloved Joan. In addition to Joan, he is survived by his brother, Jacob, his daughters Heather, Shane, and Ariel (James), and his grandchildren, Daniel, Gibor, Chaim, Vanderbilt, Wesley and Arianna.