Dr. Ramon M. Greenberg, 93, died Feb. 7, 2024. Many may remember the white-haired man bicycling through the traffic in the Longwood Medical area during the 1990s and early aughts. Fewer knew that he was on his way to Grand Rounds or to supervise medical students on their psychiatry rotation. Ray always found his own way to get where he knew he needed to be.
Ray's journey began in Perth Amboy, NJ and continued with a three-year sprint to earn a Chemistry degree at Cornell University, followed by studying psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and continuing with psychoanalytic training.
While in medical school, he met and married Shirley Saks, a Wellesley College student from Cincinnati, Ohio. They settled in Needham and raised two children, Marcia and David. They were often found on the tennis courts or at Symphony Hall.
Dr. Greenberg’s career included private practice, affiliation with the Boston Psychoanalytic Institute and Harvard Medical School, and sleep research at the Boston VA, Boston University, and Mass Mental Hospitals. His research led to discovering new treatments for veterans with alcohol withdrawal syndrome, elucidating the function of dreams, and reinterpreting how to use dreams in psychotherapy. He served as a Needham Town Meeting Member, worked for racial equity through Fair Housing and METCO, and advocated for Israeli-Palestinian understanding.
For the last 25 years, Ray and his beloved wife, Myrna Balk, have lived in Brookline and Jamaica Plain. They shared a love for music, art, and traveling – especially to visit their grandchildren in Maryland, Texas, and California.
At his passing, he is survived by wife Myrna Balk, Marcia Greenberg (and husband Dave Lewis), David Greenberg (and wife Sandy Saperstein), and eight grandchildren: Zack, Jacob and Ben Greenberg; Bella, Madi, Julian, Max, and Lucca Nathan.
In lieu of flowers, donations can be made in Ray’s honor to J Street (jstreet.org), the ACLU Foundation of Massachusetts (aclum.org), or the YMCA of the Chesapeake (ymcachesapeake.org)
