Dena Hofkosh
Oct. 11, 1954 – Sept. 26, 2023

"Help me think about this.”

Dena Hofkosh’s colleagues were likely to have heard her say those words, perhaps while Hofkosh, a developmental pediatrician, was based at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, where she served as residency program director (1997-2014) and later as vice chair of faculty affairs for pediatrics (2018-21), or in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, where she served as associate dean for faculty development (2015-18).

“We teased her, suggesting that it was her Tom Sawyer way of getting us to do work—and we did it joyfully,” says Sara McIntire, an MD and retired professor of pediatrics.

Those kinds of discussions were highly prolific, it turns out. Hofkosh (Res ’82, Fel ’84) helped to develop the Medicine-Pediatrics Residency Program and the Triple Board Program, as well as specialized training tracks within the pediatrics residency. Not only was Hofkosh a leader at Pitt, she became president of the Association of Pediatric Program Directors.

Hofkosh was key to establishing the Office of Faculty Development in the Department of Pediatrics, the medical school’s Med Ed Day (for medical educators) and the UPMC Physician Well-Being Symposium; she also prompted Pitt Med’s Academy of Distinguished Medical Educators to transform from an honorary society to one offering programs that would inspire up-and-coming educators.

She was also vocal about LGBTQ+ issues in the medical community, supporting an affinity group, planning learning experiences for med students and serving on the board of directors of the Persad Center.

“Help me think about this,” was a phrase Hofkosh might also use when approaching residents and others who “needed to be brought up to standards,” says Ann Thompson, vice dean of the School of Medicine and MD, MCCM, Distinguished Service Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Pediatrics. Thompson was struck by “how gentle and kind” Hofkosh was when telling people to shape up. She was graceful about talking frankly to department chairs and higher-ups, too, Thompson notes. “Dena could say what needed to be said and have it be received well.”

“She was a remarkable colleague,” says Terence Dermody, an MD, Distinguished Professor, the Vira I. Heinz Professor and chair of pediatrics, who is also physician-in-chief and scientific director at Children’s.

“No decision of any consequence was made without her insight and counsel.”

In 2019, Hofkosh was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She spent the next several years traveling with her daughters and around the country with her wife, Kim Patterson, in their RV, cooking, gardening and spending time with family and friends. She retired in 2021, as a professor emeritus of pediatrics.

“Her tremendous ability to convey respect and, frankly, love was enormously important to all kinds of students and faculty, from the newest to the most senior,” says Thompson.

Richard W. Moriarty
Oct. 4, 1939 – Sept. 7, 2023

Pediatrician Richard Moriarty (MD ’66, Res ’69, Fel ’71) had a knack for connecting with audiences. Whether he was acting as a telephone repairman for a hospital charity show, giving remarks to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission or making silly faces with a 2-year-old patron at a sandwich shop, Moriarty was a positive presence.

Audiences are still fond of the Mr. Yuk mascot Moriarty created with his team when he founded a poison control center at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh in 1971. Mr. Yuk, a green sick (rather than smiley) face, was designed with input from kids on what kind of symbol would stop them from tasting inedible stuff like shoe polish. Moriarty’s team gave away those stickers for families to put on household cleaners and beauty supplies. The green face even sang in Super Bowl and cartoon commercials.

“Mr. Yuk caught on like gangbusters,” Moriarty marveled in a 2021 Pitt Medcast celebrating the mascot’s five decades. “I still have people singing the tune to me 50 years later: ‘Mr. Yuk is mean. Mr. Yuk is greeeen.’”

Like Mr. Yuk, Moriarty was “funny, but also serious,” says Celia Conwell, whom Moriarty hired as lead nurse of the Children’s poison center the same year Mr. Yuk was born. “His main interest was to save children from poisoning. He was nonstop. He was so infused with the need for this.”

Moriarty organized and founded the National Poison Center Network, published toxicology research, chaired a national committee that set standards for child-safe packaging and advocated for manufacturers to plainly label ingredients.

He made a national impact but was devoted to his hometown. He grew up in Lawrenceville and served as a board member and supporter of Pittsburgh Public Theatre and president of the Discoverers program at Carnegie Museum of Natural History. He was a Pitt associate professor of pediatrics until 2004.

Alum Amerigo Ceccarelli (MD ’90, Res ’93) recalls that Moriarty was a “generous” mentor who advised premedical student societies and the Scope and Scalpel student actors. Moriarty became a pediatrician for Ceccarelli’s son and helped Ceccarelli open a private pediatric practice; they then practiced together for about 10 years before Moriarty retired from private practice.

When Moriarty was hospitalized before he died in September, spouse David Hairhoger, a 1978 Pitt Pharmacy graduate, kept Moriarty amused with good-natured pranks. Unsuspecting physicians and nurses were likely to discover chartreuse Mr. Yuk stickers on their backs after tending to Moriarty.

On the evening of his funeral, Pittsburgh’s skyline glowed green. Children’s Hospital, the UPMC Building and other Pittsburgh landmarks were lit as a tribute to Moriarty and his legacy.

Macy Irving Levine
May 19, 1920 – Oct. 7, 2023

On Pitt football game days in the 1960s, internist and allergist Macy Irving Levine (MD ’43) would first bring his son to his office on Forbes Avenue. Levine saw patients or caught up on correspondence with his professional societies while Alan waited as patiently as a kid could for the highlight of the day: lunch at a restaurant followed by the game at Pitt Stadium.

Levine never complained about working long hours, and his passion for his career set an example for his four children, says Alan Levine, a retired MIT astrophysicist.

“Education and intellectual pursuits were important to him and became a family trait,” adds son Paul Levine, an architect in Pittsburgh.

Levine died in October at 103. He was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where he survived the flood of 1936. He studied chemistry at Pitt, and then enrolled at Pitt Med. Shortly after earning his MD and completing a brief internship, Levine joined the U.S. Army and cared for troops in occupied Japan. (In 1943, Pitt Med graduated two classes of med students, so they could be deployed overseas quickly.) His letters home are archived at the Heinz History Center.

After returning stateside, Levine completed a residency in internal medicine and allergy at the Pittsburgh VA hospital followed by a fellowship in Boston at the Lahey Clinic and then one with the U.S. Public Health Service at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. When Levine set up his private practice, he became a Pitt clinical professor of medicine. He sometimes traveled to special clinics for coal miners.

A man of letters who regularly played Scrabble with friends, Levine served as editor of the Allegheny County Medical Society Bulletin for more than three decades and as newsletter editor for Pitt’s Medical Alumni Association. He was also a contributing obituaries editor for this magazine for many years. When the alumni association’s Minute Men honored Levine in 1991, they designated him a commodore for his collegial rapport and leadership in medicine.

Stuart Weinberg
Oct. 29, 1959 – July 18, 2023

Stuart Weinberg, an MD (Res ’88, Fel ’93) and associate professor of biomedical informatics and pediatrics at Vanderbilt University before his retirement in 2022, started his medical training at Pitt Med when informatics was gaining influence in health care. He rose to become a leader in the field.

Weinberg was an innovator and advocate in the field of pediatric informatics—an expert in such things as clinical reminders, personal health records and clinical decision support. He had national influence and led work on immunization tracking and registries.

Randolph Miller (MD ’76, Res ’79), former chief of Pitt Med’s section in medical informatics, trained Weinberg during his fellowship at UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh and later became his colleague at Vanderbilt School of Medicine. He says Weinberg stood out in medical informatics in large part because of a dual commitment to helping peers and improving patients’ health over time.

“Some of the best contributors to our field are clinician-informaticians with a decade or more of direct patient care experience who also possess considerable skill in inventing algorithms and writing code,” Miller says. “They develop systems intended to help other clinicians and their patients.”

“His leadership and vision for pediatric clinical informatics has benefited numerous informaticians of his and the current generation,” says Srinivasan Suresh, an MD, MBA, Pitt Med professor of pediatrics and Division of Health Informatics director, who knew Weinberg through their involvement with the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Council on Clinical Information Technology, which gave Weinberg its Byron B. Oberst Award in 2004 to recognize his contributions to the use of technology in pediatrics.

“His impact on both pediatrics and biomedical informatics is clear,” says Michael J. Becich, MD, PhD associate vice chancellor for informatics in the health sciences and Distinguished Professor and chair of biomedical informatics. “The communities he served have lost a true leader.”

Read more from the Winter 2024 issue.