Obituary of Robert Dean Harwick

Dr. Robert D. Harwick, 88, of Wyncote, a surgical oncologist, died of natural causes Friday, October 14, at his home. Dr. Harwick grew up in Utica, New York and its environs, and graduated from Cornell University and its medical school. He trained in New York City, interning at Bellevue Hospital and completing his residency in surgery at Memorial Sloan Kettering in 1955, bridging service as a naval officer in a M.A.S.H. unit in Korea from 1950 to 1952. He retired from the Navy as a Lieutenant Commander. He met his wife, Elaine Crandall Harwick, a nurse, when they worked together in New York, and they married within a week of his return from Korea. Dr. Harwick and his wife moved to Lynnewood Gardens in 1956 and then to Wyncote in 1959, where they lived together until she died in 1990 and where he also died. He began working at Temple University Hospital in January 1956, in addition to private practice with Dr. John V. Blady, and became Professor of Surgery and later Chief of Surgical Oncology in its School of Medicine. He served as president of many professional organizations, including the national Society of Head and Neck Surgeons, the Medical Club of Philadelphia, the Philadelphia chapter of the American College of Surgeons, the Philadelphia Academy of Surgery, and the Philadelphia division of the American Cancer Society. He continued operating at Temple into his 70s. Dr. Harwick was loyal and devoted to the institutions that shaped his career and to his family, friends and esteemed colleagues. He was intellectually curious, had a prodigious memory and a playful and dry wit. He was an accomplished golfer, captaining the Cornell University team. He subsequently became an avid tennis player, gardener, amateur ornithologist and music lover. Dr. Harwick is survived by his son Robert, Jr. and daughters Jean (Hirsch) and Elizabeth (Green), and grandsons David Hirsch and Peter Hirsch. A memorial service will be held at 11:00 AM on Saturday, November 12, 2011 at the Philadelphia College of Physicians, 19 South 22nd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103. Memorial contributions may be made in his memory to Temple University School of Medicine, 3500 North Broad Street, Suite 1101, Philadelphia, PA, 19140, or to The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 159 Sapsucker Woods Road, Ithaca, NY 14850. Dr. Harwick will be interred at Arlington National Cemetery, with his wife, at a later date