In Remembrance
Dr. Arnold Schecter December 1, 1934- March 16, 2025
Arnold Joel Schecter( Arnie) was born on Dec. 1, 1934, in Chicago, Illinois. He was an internationally recognized research scientist who practiced at the intersection of public health and social justice while being deeply committed to the well-being of his family.
Arnie obtained B. A.( Shimer College) and B. S. degrees from the University of Chicago, an MD degree from Howard Medical School and an MPH from Columbia University. He was board certified in preventive and occupational medicine. He was a Post Doctoral fellow in descriptive anatomy( electron microscopy) at the Harvard Medical School and interned in surgery at the Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. He held professorships at several institutions including The New Jersey College of Medicine and Dentistry, SUNY Downstate and Upstate Medical Centers( Binghamton Campus) and the University of Texas School of Public Health. During the Vietnam War he was a flight surgeon stationed at Fort Knox in Kentucky. He also served as Broome County NY Health Commissioner. At the time of his death, he was an Adjunct Professor in the University of Louisville Schools of Medicine and Public Health.
During his long career, Arnie pioneered many developments in public health. In Floyd County, Kentucky he worked to bring innovative, comprehensive health care, controlled by the people served, to a sorely neglected region. He seeded the idea of helicopter ambulances from rural to urban centers, an idea then thought far-fetched but now routine. He was an early advocate of substance use disorder as a disease, not a crime,
and pioneered the use of the narcotic antagonist naltrexone. The last half of his career was devoted to the study of exposure to and related health effects from persistent organic pollutants including dioxins, PCBs and flame retardants. He played a seminal role in documenting the exposure of Vietnam veterans and the Vietnamese people to agent orange. His advocacy contributed to veterans’ benefits for illnesses resulting from this exposure.
Arnie was soft spoken with a dry sense of humor, curious and questioning. Dedicated to lifelong learning, he worked tirelessly to make sure his children obtained higher education. He had an insatiable hunger for reading and sought out museums wherever he travelled. He had bookshelves double lined with books, underlining multiple daily publications with his multicolor pen. Knowing hunger and frugality during the Great Depression, he enjoyed grocery shopping, he always loved a good sale. He also had a fun, silly side he shared privately with his children and grandchildren, playing games like chess and checkers and building small collections of stuffed animals. He took risks and was willing to fight for his ideals whenever he sensed a wrong. He was a patient, creative teacher and mentor. He brought his family love and joy.
Arnie is survived by his wife Martha Jean of 61 years, three children, Ben( Nicole), David and Anna, four grandchildren, Zachary and Mia Schecter and Seth and Adam Berkowitz, his sister Carol Abarbanell, niece Rachel Abarbanell( Michael Botti) and brother-in-law William Berenson( Lorena).
-Martha Jean Schecter and family
30 LOUISVILLE MEDICINE
Dr. Schecter had been a member of GLMS since 2017.