Charles William Cure MD

Charles Cure, MD, 90, of Columbus, Indiana, and Naples, Florida, at Four Seasons Health Center. He was born in Martinsville, Indiana, on June 1, 1920, the son of Hester Hensley Cure and Jesse William Cure, grandson of William Cure, and great-great grandson of Hiram Cure.

He graduated from Martinsville High School in 1938; received his BA and MD degrees from Indiana University in 1942 and 1944; and interned at the Minneapolis General Hospital in 1945. A fellow at the Montreal Neurological Institute in 1946 and the house officer in neurosurgery there in 1947, he received his MSc from McGill University, also in Montreal. He was a resident in neurosurgery at the University of Chicago Clinics in 1948 to 1951, also serving as an instructor, and earned a PhD from the University of Chicago in 1950. From 1951 to 1955, he was clinical assistant professor of neurosurgery at Indiana University in Indianapolis. His papers were published in peer-reviewed medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Archives of Neurological Psychiatry, and Brain.

From 1953 to 1955, he served as a captain in the US Army Medical Corps. During the Korean War, he performed neurosurgery on injured soldiers stabilized by MASH troops in field hospitals; he was chief of neurosurgery at Fort Campbell Army Hospital, in Kentucky. He was in private practice in neurosurgery in Indianapolis from 1955 until 1976, when he moved to Columbus and was in private practice and on the staff at Bartholomew County Hospital until retiring in 1983. In Indianapolis, he was on the staff of Methodist, Community, St. Vincent’s, Winona, and Wishard hospitals.

He was a diplomate of the American Board of Neurological Surgery in 1951 and was a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, a member emeritus of the Neurosurgical Society of Indiana, and a member of the medical fraternity Phi Chi, the Congress of Neurological Surgeons, the American Association of Neurosurgeons, and the American Medical Association, Indiana State Medical Association, Marion County Medical Society (of which he was secretary in 1966), and the Bartholomew County Medical Society.

He was an Eagle Scout and a 69-year member of the Martinsville Masonic Lodge No. 74 F. & A.M., receiving his Master Mason degree in 1942. He was a former member of the Junto club and the Columbia Club and the Harrison Lake Country Club.

He was an accomplished amateur musician. He studied violin as a boy and as an adult under Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra concertmaster Eric Rosenblith. Over the years, he was active with a number of amateur string quartets and played in the Naples (Florida) Philharmonic. He also studied harpsichord and loved fishing, hiking, canoeing, bird watching, dogs, baking, wine, crossword puzzles, and reading about physics.

He is survived by his wife, the former Eloise Maria Greer, whom he married in 1946; his children, Dr. Eric Cure, of Evansville, Indiana, and Karen Cure Fradkin, of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York; their spouses, Cathie Cure and Bennett Fradkin; grandchildren Jennifer Greer Cure, of Austin, Texas; Airman Wesley Alexander Cure and Andrea Hasbrook Cure, of Montgomery, Alabama; and Sara Jane Fradkin and Rebecca Hensley Fradkin, also of Hastings-on-Hudson, New York. He was predeceased by his parents and grandson Jesse Cure.

The funeral service for Dr. Cure will be conducted at 10:30 a. m. Wednesday, January 19, 2011 in Hathaway~Myers Chapel, 1022 Pearl St., Columbus, IN 47201 with Rev. Jimmy Moore officiating. Burial will follow in Green Lawn Cemetery Martinsville, Indiana. Friends may call from 4:00 until 7:00 p. m. Tuesday and from 9:30 a. m. until service time on Wednesday in the funeral home. Online condolences may be directed to Dr. Cure’s family at www.hathaway-myers.com. In lieu of flowers, memorials may be directed to the Music Department of the University of Evansville or the Nature Conservancy.