Wallace Rubin MD

1924 - 2017

Wallace Rubin, only son of Samuel and Anna Rubin, was born on December 6, 1924 in New York City. The family then moved to Chicago, where Wally and his older sister, Selma, grew up. Wally excelled in science and mathematics in high school, and later attended the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, from which he obtained both his undergraduate and medical degrees. He then interned at Cook County General Hospital in Chicago. In 1946, he married Dorothy Louise Stiefler of Marion, Indiana.
Wally enlisted at the end of WWII, and he and Louise were stationed in Japan during the occupation. Afterwards, they moved to New Orleans, LA where Wally pursued a residency in otolaryngology. In 1950, their daughter, Joyce, was born. Louise died in 1955, and two years later, Wally married Elsie Gelpi, who brought her daughters, Leslie and Connie, into the Rubin family. Wally continued to pursue a busy and productive career as a physician specializing in ear, nose and throat problems. He also developed an intense interest in allergy, immunology and vertigo, and began to lecture on these subjects at conferences around the world, including Germany, Japan, and Brazil. He became an authority on the causes of vertigo and helped develop a machine to aid in its diagnosis. He also wrote many articles and several books on the subject. Wally and Elsie made many friends in their travels and in their work for the Southern Speech and Hearing Foundation, which provided hearing aids to deaf children and scholarships for them to attend a special camp in Colorado. On one notable trip, the Rubins and two other couples spent five days traveling to a conference in Japan on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Wally and Elsie (who died in 2010) were married for over 50 years. They were a stylish couple, and liked to dress up and go out for dinner and dancing. They also enjoyed watching baseball and going to spring training. Both of them loved a good joke, and Wally particularly liked trading silly puns with friends and family. They were devoted to their three daughters and their four grandchildren. Wally is survived by his daughters, Connie Rubin and Leslie Graf of New Orleans and Joyce Schwartz (Richard Schwartz) of DC; his grandchildren, Dr. Ryan Rubin of New Orleans, Justin Rubin of Los Angeles; Sara Schwartz-Rothberg (Alex Rothberg) of Denver and Eric Schwartz (Emma Arons) of New York City and his great-granddaughters, Lea and Alice Arons Schwartz. A Funeral Service will be held at 1:00 pm on Saturday, February 25, 2017 at Garden of Memories Funeral Home, 4900 Airline Drive in Metairie, LA. Visitation will begin at 11:00 am. Interment will be private in Garden of Memories Cemetery. In honor of Dr. Rubin, the family prefers contributions be made to St. Charles Avenue Baptist Church, 7100 St. Charles Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70118 or to the Tulane School of Medicine, 1430 Tulane Avenue, New Orleans, LA 70112. The online guestbook is available is at www.gardenofmemoriesmetairie.com.