Larry Hertzberg Obituary

Larry Hertzberg attended Chartiers Valley High School in Bridgeville, PA. View the obituary, post a memory, or share a photo about Larry Hertzberg.

Graduation Year	Class of 1972
Date of Passing	Aug 26, 2019
About	It is with great sadness that we announce the passing of Lawrence (Larry) Edward Hertzberg, M.D. Dr. Hertzberg died at Northside Hospital Forsyth, GA on August 26th, 2019 after an unexpected and brief battle with cancer. He was a loving husband and father of three children; at his passing he was the Medical Director of CSI Laboratories, a national cancer diagnostic laboratory in Alpharetta, GA. His family and colleagues miss him terribly. Larry was born in 1954, in Monterrey, California to Drs. Martin and Ruth Evelyn (Schein) Hertzberg. He graduated cum laude from Middlebury College in 1976 and received his medical degree from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981 on scholarship from the U.S. Navy’s Uniformed Services Health Professions Program. After fulfilling his obligations to the Navy, he completed a residency in pathology at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in 1990, where he was chief resident. He married Sandra (Sandy) Jean in 1978; they have a son, Benjamin Richard, and a daughter, Nicole Annette. Larry devoted his life to pathology. Pathologists are doctors’ doctors, helping physicians understand the complexities of disease. Larry was a pathologists’ pathologist. Beginning in the 1990s, he set up and ran a series of diagnostic laboratories that consulted with hospital pathologists and oncologists to diagnose cancers of the blood. Larry was an early adopter of flow cytometry, a computer technology enabled diagnostic technique. Over the course of his career, he reviewed over 100,000 cases; his colleagues knew him as a fierce advocate for patients and for timely and accurate diagnoses. The lives of the people whose diagnoses came from his desk were as important to Larry as his own. Larry met Shen Lin while he was developing a research laboratory in New York City. They married in 1999 and have a daughter, Erica. Larry had an abiding interest in health policy and mourned the effects of profit-seeking and corporatization on the profession he loved. Larry loved skiing, swimming, movies, watching sports, and eating good food with his family and friends. When frustrated with the physical limitations of his cancer, he mentioned his youthful prowess at inverted aerial ski jumping. He was ready with his opinions and enjoyed debate and discussion with all comers; his jovial nature came from less divided times. Larry was a gifted storyteller who could make oft-repeated stories enjoyable every time. Larry’s brother, Eric, and his father, Martin, preceded him in death. He is survived by his mother, Ruth, his wife, Shen Lin, his three children Benjamin, Nicole, and Erica, three grandsons, two granddaughters, his brothers Alan and Russell, his sister, Cory Alexander, three nephews, and one niece. We are devastated.