Charles Eliot “Chick” Silberstein, an orthopedic surgeon who had been the Baltimore Orioles’ crew doctor from 1978 to 2009, died of sepsis June 25 on the Gilchrist Center Towson.
He celebrated his ninetieth birthday on June 13.
“Chick was a very special human being and he helped me get to the mound,” stated Jim Palmer, the Hall of Fame pitcher who performed for almost 20 years for the Orioles. “He did both of my knees … he was a neighbor, a friend and a mentor.”
Born in Baltimore and raised on Denison Road, he was the son of Louis Silberstein, an assistant Baltimore City solicitor within the administration of Mayor Thomas J. D’Alesandro Jr., and Bessie Rabinowitz.
Family members stated he instructed tales of his summer time camp days at Camp Saginaw in Pennsylvania and was nonetheless singing camp songs all through his 80s.
He attended Liberty School and the outdated Robert E. Lee School and was a 1950 graduate of Baltimore City College.
While in elementary college he befriended Stephen Sachs, who would go on to change into Maryland’s legal professional basic. They turned lifelong buddies and Dr. Silberstein stated he bounce began Mr. Sachs’ political profession when he helped him win pupil authorities president.
He earned a level at what was then Western Maryland College and was its tennis crew captain. He entered the University of Maryland School of Medicine and accomplished his orthopedic coaching at what’s now Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia.
“I came to know Chick when he operated on my knee at Children’s Hospital when I was in high school. He was a gentleman’s gentleman,” stated Judge Stuart R. Berger, a household good friend who sits on the appellate court docket in Maryland. “Chick made people feel comfortable and at ease. He had integrity, integrity beyond reproach.”
Dr. Silberstein began practising in Baltimore in 1964 and was on the staffs of MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Sinai Hospital, Children’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins hospitals.
From 1971 to 2001, he was a associate within the Four East Madison Group, a observe of orthopedic surgeons.
His son, Richard Silberstein, stated, “My father’s sufferers felt as if he had been their grandfather. He so cared about them and spent the time to listen to their tales, the place they grew up, particulars like that. He liked understanding these issues.
My father had a favourite sweater. It got here from the daddy of a affected person from Mongolia. The sweater was native cashmere.”
From 2001 to 2009, Dr. Silberstein noticed sufferers at Johns Hopkins Greenspring Station.
He spent a few years within the Orthopedic Department at Kennedy Krieger Institute. He handled quite a few cerebral palsy sufferers who traveled worldwide to see him.
In 2014, the Kennedy Krieger Institute opened and devoted the Dr. Charles “Chick” Silberstein Sports Park on the Bennett Institute on the Kennedy Krieger School campus: Greenspring Campus High School, as soon as the placement of Children’s Hospital.
The Sports Park permits wheelchair athletes with developmental disabilities to interact in sports activities.
In 2016 the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine established the Dr. Charles Silberstein Research Fellowship.
As the Orioles’ crew doctor, he was a member of the Association of Major League Baseball Team Physicians from 1984 to 2009 and was its 1992 president.
Dr. Silberstein turned a detailed good friend of Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer.
Mr. Palmer stated of his doctor, “Chick, like a trainer with a bedside manner, was almost like a shrink to me. When I was 38 years old, he came to me and said, ‘Jim, you can’t do this anymore.’ He allowed me to have peace, that medically I had to stop. He was good and he was honest. He was one of those people who made Baltimore special.”
He traveled with the Orioles to Chicago for the playoffs and finally to Philadelphia for the World Series in 1983.
Dr. Silberstein served on the McDonogh School board of trustees from 1988 to 1996; the Kennedy Krieger Institute board of trustees from 2005 to 2009 and was president of the medical workers of Kennedy Krieger Institute from 1987 to 1988.
“He was somebody I so enjoyed working with. He was a great man. He was even-keeled, kind and complimented people,” stated Lainy LeBow Sachs, a retired Kennedy Krieger senior govt vice chairman.
Dr. Silberstein was a previous president of the Maryland Orthopedic Society and chaired the persevering with schooling committee of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine.
He was a longtime member of the Homeland Racquet Club, Beth El Congregation and Seaside Jewish Community in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.
Dr. Silberstein and his spouse spent summers at their dwelling in The Pines part of Rehoboth Beach.
“It was where the family gathered and had many happy memories of Shabbat and holiday meals on the porch hearing Chick’s wonderful stories, and sometimes his singing a Frank Sinatra or camp song,” stated his daughter, Susan Silberstein.
Survivors embrace his spouse of 67 years, Barbara Harrison Silberstein; a daughter, Susan Silberstein of Baltimore; a son, Richard Silberstein of Baltimore; 4 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Funeral providers are personal.
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Source: www.bostonherald.com