DR. MELVILLE JOSEPH SWARTZ

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DR. MELVILLE JOSEPH SWARTZ September 22 / 23 1912 November 2, 2006 Mel Swartz plunged into life with unconcealed delight. Buoyed by a marvelous joie de vivre, he was curious, intelligent, wise and terrific fun - a radiant spirit and dearest friend. Loving husband for 60 years to Ruby (nee Rabinovitch); father to Jo (Richard), Mark (Helen), and Jill (Mike); grandfather to Sarah and Zachary. Born Eli Melach Avraham, Mel was predeceased by beloved parents Vita and Naftula Swartz; sisters, Jean Blumenthal (Sam) and Yhetta Lewis; brother Joe; mother-in-law Rachel; in-laws, Anne, Charlotte, Muriel, Arthur Rabinovitch and Maurice Robinson. Deeply missed by in-laws, Seymour Rabinovitch (Flora) and Mimi Robinson; nieces Beverley Ann Lewis-Harris (Peter), and Marsha Schwartzman (Sid), the Tritt family of Montreal and Winnipeg, the Rabinovitch family, cousins and friends. Mel graduated from Queen's University medical school (he was also wrestling champ and expert in dressage) before antibiotics or viruses were known. An independent thinker, he proposed the concept of filterable organisms, smaller than bacteria, which could cause disease. He worked in British Columbia's interior and northern goldmines, in Alaska and on the Empress of Canada to Shanghai. In the Second World War, a Major in the Royal Army Medical Corps, he moved by horse, ship, rail, foot and parachute through India, Burma and the South Pacific. Back in Montreal, amid poetry and roses, he wed Ruby Rabinovitch in 1946. Mel was from the old school of doctoring: long hours, house calls, lifelong relationships with many patients. A founding member of Winnipeg's Mall Medical Group, he was head of Urology at both Misericordia and Victoria Hospital. His own medical office was packed with art. Mostly Inuit art. When he retired, age 80, he donated most of his collection to the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Mel cherished his wife and family. He composed a lullaby for his young children and sang it to them every night. He loved people of every age and people loved him. Stamp collecting was a lifelong passion. He savoured good company, good conversation, good food, and good story. He laughed often, read voraciously, and cheered the opera, symphony, theatre and ballet. Bravissimo! Evelyn Hart left him enraptured. At 85, Mel got his first hole-in-one; at 91, he saw his first pileated woodpecker, and at 93, a rare whooping crane! In 2002, Mel's devoted family inscribed two lines of Mel's own poem - written at 17 - on the Assiniboine Park bench where he often rested. It describes how he met each day: Hail O hyperdiaphonous and supralustrous orb of day In whose effulgent beams, lusorious insects romp and play... A beautiful man of generous heart.

As published in Winnipeg Free Press on Nov 22, 2006