Dr. Marvin Kuschner, 83, Dean of Long Island Medical School -- Rest in Peace

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Subject: Dr. Marvin Kuschner, 83, Dean of Long Island Medical School

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died October 18

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Date Posted: November 10, 2002 1:38:24 EDT

Dr. Marvin Kuschner, who presided over the birth of the medical school at the State University of New York at Stony Brook and its development into a well-regarded teaching institution, died on Oct. 18 in New York. He was 83.

The cause was complications from pneumonia, his family said.

In 1970, when he was a professor of pathology at New York University, Dr. Kuschner was recruited to be chairman of Stony Brook's pathology department. Two years later, as the medical school was accepting its first students, he was appointed dean.

One of Dr. Kuschner's earliest challenges there was persuading faculty members from other medical schools to take a chance on an entirely new venture in Suffolk County.

Dr. Norman H. Edelman, the current dean, said that Dr. Kuschner's reputation helped him recruit.

"People had confidence in him," Dr. Edelman said. "They had faith."

From 1972 until 1987, when Dr. Kuschner stepped down and resumed teaching, the school's budget grew to almost $100 million from $2 million, according to the school. About 110 students graduate from the school each year. During Dr. Kuschner's tenure, the university established Stony Brook University Hospital.

Dr. Kuschner also made a mark by establishing Stony Brook as an important center of research and as a major recipient of grant money, perhaps more than was originally planned, Dr. Edelman said.

"The medical school has always conceived of itself as having a real responsibility for advancing knowledge," Dr. Kuschner said in an interview the year after he became dean. "There is no teacher who is not obsolete within less than a year if he is not engaged in research activity, in keeping himself informed of what others are doing in his field, of relating it to his own work, of examining new advances critically."

Marvin Kuschner was born in New York City and earned his medical degree from New York University. He had most recently been living in Huntington, N.Y.

His wife, Katherine, whom he met in the Army in World War II when she was a nurse and he was a pathologist, died this year.

Dr. Kuschner is survived by a son, Jason, of Manhattan, and two grandchildren.

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