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Resource Name:
Resource Type:
External Resource
Metadata
Asset Name:
E009350 - Levitt, Abraham Solomon (1927 - 2017)
Title:
Levitt, Abraham Solomon (1927 - 2017)
Author:
Michael Levitt
Identifier:
RCS: E009350
Publisher:
London : Royal College of Surgeons of England
Publication Date:
2017-05-19

2017-06-20
Description:
Obituary for Levitt, Abraham Solomon (1927 - 2017), Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England.
Language:
English
Source:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Full Name:
Levitt, Abraham Solomon
Date of Birth:
17 April 1927
Place of Birth:
Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Date of Death:
16 February 2017
Titles/Qualifications:
Levitt, Abraham Solomon
Details:
Abraham Solomon ('Sol') Levitt was a colorectal surgeon in Perth, Western Australia. He was born in Adelaide, South Australia, on 17 April 1927, the second child of Pinchas and Hadassah Levitt, who had emigrated from British mandate Palestine. Pinchas had been born in Bendery, then in Bessarabia, and had fled violent anti-Semitic pogroms in the early 1920's. Hadassah was a native of Petach Tikva, east of Tel Aviv, whose antecedents had settled the region when it was still swamp and marshlands, over a century earlier. Along with his parents and his older sister, Bella, Sol returned to Palestine in the early 1930's and received his primary school education there. The family emigrated to Australia a second time, just as the Second World War was breaking out, joining family in Perth. With the help of friends and family, they settled well into the Perth Jewish community, where Sol proved to be an excellent student and a talented sportsman. After completing a scholarship to the prestigious Perth Modern School, Sol entered medical school. At that time, there was no medical school in Perth and he was one of six entrants into the Adelaide University course reserved for applicants from Perth. In Adelaide, Sol was introduced to a local general practitioner, Leon Opit, and his wife Bertha and their family; he fell in love with their daughter Jeanette, whom he married after his graduation (with honours) in 1952. Sol was a champion soccer player at university and was twice selected in the All-Australian Intervarsity team. When he returned to Perth to work as a junior doctor in 1951, he continued to play soccer, playing in the highest division in Perth at that time. Sol and Jeanette left for England in 1954 so he could pursue a career in surgery. He passed his fellowship first in Edinburgh and later in London, and worked in Colchester and later at St Mark's Hospital in London. He soon earned a reputation as an excellent doctor and surgeon, and was invited to stay on at St Mark's for a second term, establishing his expertise in colorectal surgery. While in England, Jeanette gave birth to sons Leon and Michael and, shortly after their return to Perth, to their third son, Anthony. All three sons followed their father into a career in medicine. In Perth, Sol provided an honorary service to the Royal Perth and Sir Charles Gairdner hospitals (SCGH), while developing a private practice across town. He was the first general surgeon at SCGH, and 'Charlie's' was always his favourite; he remained there as a staff surgeon until 1992 and was chairman of its medical advisory committee and a member of the SCGH board of management from 1984 to 1985. Within medicine, he made extensive contributions. He was the key Western Australian point of contact for the emerging specialty of colorectal surgery, serving on the committee of the Royal Australasian College of Surgeons' section of colon and rectal surgery, as its chairman on two separate occasions. He was also a foundation member and councillor of the Colorectal Surgical Society of Australia and New Zealand. He provided the driving advocacy for the establishment of enterostomal therapy in Perth (he was the patron of the Stomal Therapy Association of Western Australia for many years), and single-handedly established the local Familial Adenomatous Polyposis Registry, liaising with international centres and experts with similar interests. He was a mentor and an inspiration to numerous Perth surgeons, served as an esteemed member of the Medical Board of Western Australia from 1986 to 1995, and played an instrumental role in the professionalisation and financial stabilisation of the Medical Defence Association of Western Australia (now a robust, national organisation) from 1973 through to 2003. Outside of medicine, he was one of a handful of young Perth Jewish men and women in the late 1950s who founded Carmel School, which is today still the small Perth Jewish community's only day school, and served on its board of management, two years as its president. His three sons all attended Carmel School and each benefited from its excellence, something for which Sol had always strived. He had an abiding passion for farming, probably the result of a summer holiday job he took as a teenager droving cattle in isolated farming land on the south coast of Western Australia, which left an indelible impression upon him. In the 1960's, as a surgeon in Perth, he extended his interest in farming to co-own property in Dale River (near Beverley) and run a Murray Grey beef cattle stud. Sol relished both the science and the physicality of farming life and became a respected (if atypical) member of the local farming and cattle-breeders' communities. He served as a committee member for the Western Australia Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society, judged cattle at a small rural cattle show, participated fully in the life of the farms with which he was involved and turned every farming endeavour into a success. His ability to master skills and knowledge well outside of surgery - his undisputed sphere of excellence - was testament to his immense intellect and his capacity for new knowledge. In his early 80's, he was afflicted by a slowly progressive form of dementia, which gradually robbed him of his cognitive skills and, later, his mobility. Jeanette managed to look after him with her usual affection, devotion and good humour until he required more intensive nursing care. After a long and slow decline, he died with Jeanette at his side on 16 February 2017, two months short of his 90th birthday. Sol Levitt was a superb doctor and surgeon. Thousands of patients and colleagues have attested to his sublime technical skills and his calm, deeply reassuring demeanour. His gentle, respectful, humble manner inspired the confidence of those around him in whichever sphere of activity he found himself, from hospital life to the medical indemnity industry, from the legal and regulatory environment of the medical board to communal school education, from the farming community to his close and loving family. He was survived by Jeanette, his wife of 65 years, three sons all still in active medical practice, their wives, nine grandchildren, two great-grandchildren, and his sister Bella. He lived a full life characterised by love for his family and in the service of his community.
Sources:
Royal Australasian College of Surgeons In Memoriam Solomon Levitt www.surgeons.org/about-racs/about-the-college-of-surgeons/in-memoriam - accessed 27 May 2017
Rights:
Copyright (c) The Royal College of Surgeons of England
Collection:
Plarr's Lives of the Fellows
Format:
Obituary
Format:
Asset
Asset Path:
Root/Lives of the Fellows/E009000-E009999/E009300-E009399
Media Type:
Unknown