Chicago Tribune, November 19, 2002
David Abramson – 1905-2002
Married Louise Felson 1940
Children, Beth Casey (b. 1943), Julie Abramson (b. 1942)
Dr. David I. Abramson, 97, who once headed the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Illinois Medical School, died of heart failure in his Evanston home Sunday, Nov. 3.
Dr. Abramson was born in Manhattan and received his undergraduate and medical degrees from Long Island College Hospital Medical School, now the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn. After he graduated, Dr. Abramson began teaching physiology at the Long Island medical school and had fellowships in cardiovascular research at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York and Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago.
In 1940, he married Louise Felson, a former director of the Jewish Community Center in Cincinnati.
During World War II, Dr. Abramson was a clinical specialist in peripheral vascular disease with the Army and treated many soldiers while stationed in Galesburg, Ill.
After the war, he opened a private practice in Chicago on Michigan Avenue and became a researcher and clinician in peripheral vascular disease. Dr. Abramson also taught internal medicine at the University of Illinois and was passionate about making good clinicians.
In 1955, he was appointed head of the university’s Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Dr. Abramson published 11 medical books, including the 1974 edition of “Vascular Disorders in the Extremities,” and wrote 133 articles for medical journals.
Julie Abramson said her father “saved many legs because he didn’t go after it the traditional surgical way. He just took a different approach but one that was popular with his patients.”
Dr. Abramson retired from the University of Illinois in 1972 and worked as a medical adviser to judges in the Social Security Administration until two years ago.
Since then, he was writing his memoirs, “Tales and Musings of a Physician at Age 97.” Dr. Abramson didn’t finish the book, but his daughter said she and her sister, who served as editors, plan to publish it.
Dr. Abramson and his wife lived in Maywood and Oak Park, until her death in 1988. He then moved to Evanston. Besides his daughter, survivors include another daughter, Beth Tucker. A memorial service was held.
The Felson Family 