Obituary for Morton Waldman
Morton B. Waldman MD - 89, of Margate, a devoted husband and father, respected physician, passed away on March 6, 2020 with his wife Sandra (née Belfer) by his side. Born on February 15, 1931, in Philadelphia to Sara and Morris Waldman, “Mort” was an outstanding intellectual who passionately pursued his many interests throughout his lifetime. After attending Atlantic City High School, he graduated from Lafayette College and subsequently from the George Washington School of Medicine and Health Sciences. He completed a residency in internal medicine at the Atlantic City Medical Hospital followed by a three-year residency in neurology at Colorado General Hospital in Denver. Upon completion, he returned to Atlantic City to begin his practice as a clinical neurologist. During his accomplished professional career, he tended to his patients at the Mainland Medical Center, Atlantic City Hospital, Shore Memorial Hospital, Betty Bacharach Institute for Rehabilitation, and Burdett Tomlin Memorial Hospital; he also served as Chief of the Department of Neurology at Shore Memorial Hospital, where he helped train future neurologists. Mort was proud to devote a part of his practice to giving free medical care to those in need—he was loved and adored by his patients and peers.
Mort was congenial, generous, and compassionate in his professional and personal life. He always was ready to surprise you with a witty one-liner or humor you with one of his favorite jokes (occasionally adorned with an uncannily perfected Yiddish accent). He also consumed humor: When he watched comedians such as The Marx Brothers, Benny Hill, or Steven Wright, you could behold that his ebullience and bobbing belly created the epitome of joy—and you just had to laugh right along with him! But this good cheer and his dry wit belied the earnestness with which he pursued his many more-heady interests. He became one of the country’s first owners of a personal computer when he purchased a MITS Altair 8800 in 1975—powered by software written by pre-Microsoft Bill Gates and Paul Allen. He devoured all available materials related to personal computing and quickly became an accomplished computer programmer, hand-coding software algorithms to compute his commodity-trade yields and perform price-trend analyses on his stock holdings. His intense love of mathematics, probability, and game theory drew him to the pursuit of beating the odds at horse-racing, blackjack, and poker—and made him a formidable bridge, chess, and backgammon opponent. Mort was well-read and cultured: He could recite verbatim quotes from Shakespeare, lyrics from countless songs, and entire narrative poems, such as Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven”. He was a speedy yet accurate reader, a grammarian, and a logophile with an expansive vocabulary who routinely solved New York Times crossword puzzles using a pen. He enjoyed music, taking delight in listening to the discographies Erroll Garner, Stephen Sondheim, Charles Ives, and Prokofiev—among his favorites. He was a gifted pianist and would delight family and visitors by expertly playing ragtime and beloved jazz standards. He had appreciation for art work, cherishing paintings and the fine detail in delicate sculptures—he even dabbled in needlepoint, creating an embroidered image of a beautiful bird that continues to grace a cherished family-room pillow. Indeed, this neurologist exploited all available neurons on both the left and right sides of his remarkable brain.
Mort—the man, the doctor, the husband, the father, the friend—was deeply-deeply loved, respected, and admired by his surviving wife Sandy, son Jonathan, and daughters Stephanie and Nancy, and he will remain alive in their hearts and minds eternally.
A funeral service will be held on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 11:00am at Congregation Beth Israel, 2501 Shore Road, Northfield. Entombment will follow in Beth Israel Cemetery, Egg Harbor Township.
Mort was congenial, generous, and compassionate in his professional and personal life. He always was ready to surprise you with a witty one-liner or humor you with one of his favorite jokes (occasionally adorned with an uncannily perfected Yiddish accent). He also consumed humor: When he watched comedians such as The Marx Brothers, Benny Hill, or Steven Wright, you could behold that his ebullience and bobbing belly created the epitome of joy—and you just had to laugh right along with him! But this good cheer and his dry wit belied the earnestness with which he pursued his many more-heady interests. He became one of the country’s first owners of a personal computer when he purchased a MITS Altair 8800 in 1975—powered by software written by pre-Microsoft Bill Gates and Paul Allen. He devoured all available materials related to personal computing and quickly became an accomplished computer programmer, hand-coding software algorithms to compute his commodity-trade yields and perform price-trend analyses on his stock holdings. His intense love of mathematics, probability, and game theory drew him to the pursuit of beating the odds at horse-racing, blackjack, and poker—and made him a formidable bridge, chess, and backgammon opponent. Mort was well-read and cultured: He could recite verbatim quotes from Shakespeare, lyrics from countless songs, and entire narrative poems, such as Edgar Allen Poe’s “The Raven”. He was a speedy yet accurate reader, a grammarian, and a logophile with an expansive vocabulary who routinely solved New York Times crossword puzzles using a pen. He enjoyed music, taking delight in listening to the discographies Erroll Garner, Stephen Sondheim, Charles Ives, and Prokofiev—among his favorites. He was a gifted pianist and would delight family and visitors by expertly playing ragtime and beloved jazz standards. He had appreciation for art work, cherishing paintings and the fine detail in delicate sculptures—he even dabbled in needlepoint, creating an embroidered image of a beautiful bird that continues to grace a cherished family-room pillow. Indeed, this neurologist exploited all available neurons on both the left and right sides of his remarkable brain.
Mort—the man, the doctor, the husband, the father, the friend—was deeply-deeply loved, respected, and admired by his surviving wife Sandy, son Jonathan, and daughters Stephanie and Nancy, and he will remain alive in their hearts and minds eternally.
A funeral service will be held on Tuesday, March 10, 2020 at 11:00am at Congregation Beth Israel, 2501 Shore Road, Northfield. Entombment will follow in Beth Israel Cemetery, Egg Harbor Township.