Obituaries
OB-GYN, Veteran Howard
Isaacson Dies at 99
L SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
ongtime obstetrician and gyne-
cologist Dr. Howard Isaacson of
Wynnewood, who served in the
Air Force after World War II, died May
15 of cancer at Waverly Heights retire-
ment community. He was 99.

During his 60-plus-year career
as an OB-GYN, Isaacson delivered
more than 10,000 children, including
his three grandchildren. He practiced
at Philadelphia General, Haverford,
Pennsylvania, Presbyterian, Lankenau
and Thomas Jefferson University hospi-
tals. He was only the second Jewish doc-
tor to practice at Pennsylvania Hospital,
according to granddaughter Zoë Slutzky.

“He was really just somebody that every-
body could trust,” son Bill Isaacson said.

A member of Adath Israel in Merion
Station, Isaacson was a supporter of a
myriad of Jewish organizations, includ-
ing the Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia, B’nai Brith and the
Philadelphia Holocaust Remembrance
Foundation. “He attended synagogue all his life,
and he kept kosher, for example, and
those values were important to him. [He]
raised his family according to them,”
daughter Joan Ockman said.

Family members described Isaacson as
kind to a fault, which was reflected in his
dedication to his job.

Ockman remembers her father taking
calls during dinner or in the middle of
the night. After late-night or early-morn-
ing deliveries, he’d come home at dawn
and promptly leave again for work for his
daily office hours.

In the winter, Isaacson would roll
down the driveway, jack the car up and
tie chains on the tires to drive in the
snow. Born in the Bronx and
the grandson of Jewish
immigrants in 1922,
Isaacson grew up in Dr. Howard Isaacson and granddaughter Zoë Slutzky
Courtesy of Zoë Slutzky
Freehold, New Jersey. His
He also befriended a Palestinian
father eventually owned a clothing and
fabrics store that Isaacson would clock man and his family while living in
hours at, teaching himself customer ser- Montgomery. They were lifelong friends,
vice and learning admiration for his par- keeping in touch and exchanging gifts
for years.

ents. “He respected their work ethic, their
After his service, Isaacson returned
hard work,” Slutzky said. “That infused to Philadelphia, where he completed
the way he approached his career.”
residences at Jefferson and Philadelphia
Isaacson planned to become a gen- General hospitals. He was a practicing
eral surgeon and graduated from Rutgers OB-GYN until his retirement in 2003 and
University in 1943.

continued to advise patients years after.

Despite Jefferson Medical College’s
After the death of his wife in 1993,
quota on Jewish students, Isaacson was Isaacson became partners with Reta
accepted there and graduated in 1946. Eisenberg, who died in 2018. The two
The war, which sent many young men loved to travel.

overseas, increased university demand
With a deep love for the the-
for students, giving Jews, women and ater, Isaacson shared his passion for
other under-enrolled populations the Shakespeare with his family.

opportunity to attend.

Throughout his life, Isaacson took
But Isaacson held his own, Ockman an interest in the hobbies of his loved
said: “The story he told was he was inter- ones. He talked about sports and med-
viewed and was offered admission on the icine with his son, who is also a doctor,
spot. He was very bright and impressed and poetry with his daughter. He kept a
them with his intelligence, aptitude.”
garden with Slutzky until his mid-90s.

He interned at the Philadelphia
“He was really a gentleman,” Bill
General Hospital in 1947, the same year Isaacson said. “A great, great role
he married chemist June Golove.

model.” Isaacson joined the Air Force and
Isaacson is survived by his two
was assigned to the Maxwell Air Force children, Bill Isaacson and Joan
Base in Montgomery, Alabama, where, Ockman; three grandchildren; and one
instead of performing general surgery, he great-grandchild. JE
was asked to deliver babies in the grow-
ing baby boomer era.

srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com BASS
Beverley (nee Feingold)-May 26, 2022,
Moorestown, NJ. formerly of Dresher, PA.

Wife of Bernard Bass z”l. Mother of Beth
Bass Gersten and Bradford (Bryna) Bass.

Grandmother of Brittany (Josh), Jack (Su-
zanne), Maxwell and Andrew. Great-Grand-
mother of Sarah, Jonathan, William, Eliza-
beth, and Johnny. Sister of Irene Hyman z”l,
Seymour Feingold z”l, and Jeffrey Feingold.

PLATT MEMORIAL CHAPELS
www.plattmemorial.com CRESKOFF
www.jewishexponent.com 34
JUNE 16, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Howard J. Creskoff peacefully passed away
surrounded by loved ones in his daughter’s
home in Gladwyne, Pennsylvania on June 7,
2022 at the age of 81. He was the beloved
son of Edith (née Milgram) and Leonard Cre-