New Ideas to Support Pima County Healthcare: Reflections On PCMS In 2024 By: Dennis Carey,…
Robert S. Hirsch 1930-2017
Robert S. Hirsch, MD, who served as president of the Pima County Medical Society and Arizona Medical Association, died April 8, 2017. He was 86.
Hirsch an internal medicine and hematology/oncology practitioner was born October 24, 1930, in New York City. He received an undergraduate degree from Harvard and graduated from Columbia University Medical School in 1956. After a one-year internship at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York, he completed his internal medicine residency at the VA Hospital in Bronx, NY. It was the beginning of many years of service to the military and veterans. He was a member of the U.S. Army 29th Medical Detachment in Goeppingen, Germany for two years and received a certificate of merit. In 1962, he moved to Tucson and was a staff physician at the Tucson VA Hospital where he a staff member until his retirement in 1994. During that time he also was named Chief of Medicine at Tucson Medical Center, an associate professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine, a fellow of the American College of Medicine and Medical Director at Handmaker Care Center.
Hirsch was just as dedicated to serving his fellow physicians. After joining PCMS in 1963, he served on several committees and was elected vice president in 1980, president elect in 1981 and president in 1982. He was named to the PCMS Board of Mediation in 1984. He was elected ArMA vice president in 1985-86, president elect 1986-87 and president 1987-88. He continued to serve as ArMA Southern Arizona District Director in 1989-1990 and was an alternate delegate in 1991-1992. He was honored as PCMS Physician of the Year in 1992. He was a 50-year Member of PCMS.
“He was a physician’s physician,” said Steve Nash, former PCMS Executive Director. “Physicians were his patients by the dozens because he was so good. I will miss him very much.”
He is survived by his wife, Harriett; daughter Julie (Brian) Hills: son David; grandchildren Renee (Matt) Fixel, William Brown, Lillian and Vivian Hirsch. Services were held at Evergreen Mortuary on April 12, 2017.
