Authors:
Richard L. Schreiner, MD, Edwin L. Gresham Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics, Indiana University School of Medicine; Retired Chairman, Department of Pediatrics; Retired Physician-in-Chief, Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health; and Chairman, Riley Hospital Historic Preservation Committee, and;
Karen Bruner Stroup, Ph.D., Retired Director, Community Education and Child Advocacy, Riley Hospital for Children at IU Health; Secretary, Riley Hospital Historic Preservation Committee
Roger Allen Hurwitz, M.D., retired Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics (1968-1999), died on April 18, 2025. He was 91 years old.
Dr. Roger Hurwitz was an important member of the pediatric cardiology staff with an interest in nuclear cardiology and looking at heart function. He joined Cardiology in 1968 when the Pediatric Cardiology division was headed by Don Girod, M.D. (from 1967-2004). Dr. Girod was a national leader in cardiac catheterization as well as noninvasive repair of heart defects. In 1967, Drs. Girod and Hurwitz were an elite pair, the only two pediatric cardiologists in the State of Indiana after Paul Lurie, M.D., left Riley Hospital in 1967. Dr. Lurie was Indiana’s first pediatric cardiologist who served as chief of Cardiology at Riley Hospital from 1950-1967.
In 1968, Dr. Roger Hurwitz got into a car with his division chief, Dr. Don Girod, headed north, and drove into history. They drove north to conduct regular pediatric cardiology clinics at Grissom Air Force Base in Peru and in South Bend at a time when “this kind of outreach just wasn’t done by children’s hospitals,” recalls Richard Schreiner, M.D., retired Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics. Drs. Hurwitz and Girod laid the groundwork for what would evolve decades later into Riley Hospital for Children’s network of outreach clinics in Indianapolis and around the state.
Dr. Hurwitz also saw down the road the potential for current technology at the time to diagnose children with heart problems. He recognized early on the possibilities of using echocardiography (ultrasound) – a technique then used only in adults – for children. Adult cardiologists discouraged him, but in time, it turned out Dr. Hurwitz was right, and the technology found widespread use among children.
Innovation, inspiration, and excellence – all hallmarks of Dr. Hurwitz’s practice and example as a pediatric cardiologist. He was consistently recognized by colleagues as an exceptional mentor and example. Dr. Randall L. Caldwell described Dr. Hurwitz: “He was a wonderful man. He was great at teaching, and he was probably the best mentor I’ve ever run into.” For Dr. Caldwell, it was a life-changing relationship: “I first ran into Don Girod and Roger Hurwitz in 1969, when I was assigned to pediatric cardiology in my junior year of medical school. And I fell in love with it.” Dr. Caldwell joined Drs. Girod and Hurwitz at Riley Hospital the day after completing his fellowship as the third cardiologist in the State of Indiana. Dr. Caldwell went on to serve Riley Hospital’s children and families as Director of Pediatric Cardiology and Medical Director of the echocardiogram and pediatric heart transplant programs at Riley, retiring in 2021.
Together, Drs. Girod, Hurwitz, and Caldwell elevated and expanded Riley Hospital’s young pediatric cardiology program into a world-class heart center.
In a letter to John Brown, M.D., Chief of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Department, on his retirement in 2020, Mark Ayers, M.D. (heart surgery patient of Dr. Brown in 1990s at age 9), wrote to Dr. Brown: “In the truest and most basic sense you saved my life. Then, while (I was) searching for meaning in the suffering I endured, you and Dr. (Roger) Hurwitz inspired me to pay it forward … (and) become a pediatric cardiologist (at Riley Hospital).”
Every physician has unforgettable patients and, in the case of Dr. Hurwitz, unforgettable families as well. Dr. Hurwitz managed the Emily Caroline Rae Lectureship Fund for the Department of Cardiology. Emily Caroline Rae had a transposition of the great vessels and underwent a Mustard procedure at Riley Hospital. At the time (early 1960s), ability to manage and treat these more complicated lesions was in its infancy and Emily Caroline Rae passed away in 1962 at 5 months old. In her memory, her parents donated money to help with the educational development of practitioners in pediatric cardiology. The Emily Caroline Rae fund has now grown such that a guest lectureship is sponsored by Cardiology on an annual basis.
Emily Caroline Rae’s father was Edwin Carter Rae, Ph.D., an eminent scholar of medieval Irish art and architecture, who was part of a group of men and women from thirteen countries working to recover and return art works and artifacts taken by the Nazis during WWII. The story of these men and women was made into a major motion picture named “The Monuments Men” released in 2014. For his devoted service to locate and return looted European works of art and other cultural objects to their home countries, Dr. Rae was awarded the Legion of Honor by the French government.
D. Wade Clapp, M.D., Chairman, Department of Pediatrics, recognized Dr. Hurwitz with this tribute:
He was one of the leaders in our department who helped establish the culture that makes our department a combined service, education, and innovation leader in the United States. Amazingly, he contributed to all those missions when the Department had 35 faculty. Dr. Hurwitz, Dr. Don Girod (the cardiology division chief for decades) and their fellow (Dr. Randy Caldwell- who subsequently led the Division for decades as well) anchored pediatric cardiology for years.
Dr. Hurwitz was a true master clinician whose skills with a stethoscope and clinical exam were unparallel. It’s important to remember that when Dr. Hurwitz joined the faculty in 1968, there was no echocardiography. When an emergency anatomical diagnosis was required, he or his colleagues took the patient to the cath lab day or night. Though a small-figured gentlemen, he was a true iron man who loved his work! Dr. Hurwitz conveyed that enthusiasm and the responsibility of being a physician to students and residents. Consequently, everyone always came to rounds prepared. He was a master bedside teacher and was renowned for that ability with all medical students. No one taught auscultation skills or differential diagnosis better. Senior medical students (whether they were interested in pediatrics or internal medicine) always looked to the months that he was on clinical service and requested to do electives in pediatric cardiology at that time.
When the cardiology division began to grow and offer opportunities for specialization and increased scholarship, Dr. Hurwitz retrained in nuclear medicine to bring that capability to the division and to children at Riley. He was always driving technology and publishing his results. That trait he clearly passed on to the next generation of pediatric cardiologists who are many of the leaders in the division of that esteemed tradition today.
Finally, it’s important to remember what a wonderful gentleman Roger was both inside and outside the hospital. His work at Riley and at the Indiana University School of Medicine has and will have a lasting impact. We are all deeply indebted to him, and it was an honor to know him as a mentor, colleague, and friend.
Photo caption: (l to r) Rhonda Fogle, graduating senior, Indiana University School of Medicine, being presented award, Dr. Robert Baehner, Indiana University School of Medicine Dean Steven C. Beering, Dr. Donald Girod, and Dr. Roger Hurwitz-Drs. Baehner, Girod, and Hurwitz: All Department of Pediatrics.
Photo courtesy: IUI University Library Special Collections and Archives
References:
Retired Cardiologist Dr. Randall Caldwell named Healthcare Hero, Riley Connections Blog, 9-21-21: https://www.rileychildrens.org/connections/retired-cardiologist-dr-randall-caldwell-named-healthcare-hero
IU Alliance of Distinguished and Titled Professors, Randall L. Caldwell: https://alliance.iu.edu/members/member/2056.html
IU Alliance of Distinguished and Titled Professors, John J. Brown: https://alliance.iu.edu/members/member/3886.html Donald A. Girod, M.D, Obituary: https://www.dignitymemorial.com/obituaries/indianapolis-in/donald-girod-9815064
Edwin Carter Rae (Emily Caroline Rae’s father), Find a Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/124674962/edwin-carter-rae
Monuments Men and Women Foundation, Edwin Carter Rae: https://www.monumentsmenandwomenfnd.org/rae-capt-edwin-c
Dr. Eric S. Ebenroth and Dr. Randall L. Caldwell, December 2023 e-communications, Emily Caroline Rae Lectureship Fund.
Candace O’Connor, Cherishing Each Child: Riley Hospital for Children, 1924-2024, Indiana University Press, 2024.
Paul Raymond Lurie: An innovator and founder of paediatric cardiology, Cardiology in the Young (2010), 20, 402-409.
D. Wade Clapp, M.D., e-Tribute to Pediatrics Faculty for Roger A. Hurwitz, April 23, 2025.