Dr. Michael Greenfield

Michael Greenfield was born July 9, 1926, in Brooklyn, New York. He received his BA from University of Vermont, and his MD from New York University College of Medicine. From 1954–1957 he was a Captain in the United States Air Force, serving as Chief of Urology at Tachikawa Air Force Base, Tokyo, Japan.

For the next 41 years, he practiced medicine at Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Connecticut, and also taught Urology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. During his tenure at Danbury Hospital, he served as Chief of Urology, and also founded the Operating Room Technicians School and The Nurses Scholarship Fund. In 1971, he led the successful effort to get vasectomy legalized in Connecticut, and subsequently authored and published The Complete Reference Book on Vasectomy. In 1972, he traveled to London to study Acupuncture, and became one of the first practitioners of Acupuncture on the East Coast.

Dr. Greenfield was relentlessly creative. He wrote poetry for 40 years, publishing three books, with a fourth to be published posthumously. He created his final work, ‘Who Killed AI’ the week before his passing. He was a master woodcarver, stone sculptor, photographer and raised begonias and cacti.

He enjoyed tennis, skiing, boating, Jazz, his dog Maggie, and was a superb Scrabble player who could tell you the 15 words starting with ‘Q’ that didn’t need to be followed by a ‘U’. He was exceptionally well-read, with an intellect both broad and deep, equaled only in size to his humanity.

Dr. Greenfield was a man of immense humility, with an insatiable curiosity about people, places, and things, all coupled with an incisive wit and singular sense of humor. By any measure, a renaissance man, who impacted so many lives.

Michael Greenfield is survived by his beloved wife Harriet, with whom he had a 72-year love affair; his children Andy and his wife Anne Lantz; Debra; Ken and his wife Marcia Knight; Jonathan and his late wife Ronnie Spector; grandchildren Austin, Jason, Ashley, Shaela, and Kinsey; and great grandchildren Liv, Max, and Wes.

A “Celebration of Life” service will take place at the end of the summer.