Avram Elyea Rosenthal

Avram E. Rosenthal passed away peacefully at home in Spring, Texas, February 5, 2026. He was 92 years old. Avram was a first-generation American who was a steady and generous provider and mentor, and a dedicated and loving husband, father, stepfather, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, and cousin.

Avram was born May 21, 1933, in St. Joseph, Missouri, to William J. and Ida Rosenthal. He lived his early childhood in St. Joe, where his paternal grandparents and, later, parents operated the Rosenthal Furniture & Carpet Co. and his paternal grandfather helped found Shaare Sholem Congregation (1895), the Talmud Torah Hebrew School (1900), and the Knynishiner Unterstitzung Verein (incorporated in 1914), an organization that lent money interest-free to families in need within the community. The values they lived by guided his own and influenced his pursuits and his parenting.

After his father passed away in 1944, Avram’s family moved to Kansas City. He became a bar mitzvah and was confirmed at Congregation Keneseth Israel-Beth Sholom Synagogue and graduated from Paseo High School, where he was an honor roll student; president of the Juntos Club, which fostered unity and cultural awareness among students; and a member of the Chemistry Club.

Avram earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology and Chemistry from The University of Kansas City (now UMKC) in 1954. He attended the University of Kansas Medical School from 1954 to 1958, when he graduated as a Doctor of Medicine. He excelled academically and became an elected a member of Phi Beta Kappa honor society.

Following medical school, Avram and his first wife moved to Los Angeles, where he was an intern and completed residency at L.A. County General Hospital. In 1962, he was called to Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri, where he served for two years as a radiologist and Captain in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps at a full-service hospital. During that time, there was a severe shortage of radiologists and he was one of only two serving Ft. Leonard Wood’s population of 35,000.

Avram earned Board Certification in Radiology in 1963. In 1964, he established a private practice in Los Angeles and settled his family in the San Fernando Valley. He became Board Certified in Radiation Oncology in 1973. The following year, the family moved back to the Midwest, where Avram became head of the Radiology Oncology Department at St. John Hospital in Tulsa. During this time, he also traveled to surrounding cities to support other doctors in need.

Avram was a member of the American Medical Association and the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology from which he was elected to the Silver Pin Club for his long standing active membership. He served on the Board of Directors of Tulsa Radiology Associates for many years. In recognition of his academic and professional achievements, the Board of Regents at the University of Oklahoma Tulsa Medical College awarded him the rank of Clinical Assistant Professor.

In 1985, he married Martha R. Homan, the love of his life and unwavering partner. After retiring at 60, Avram continued to stay current on medical news. In 1996, they moved to Bentwater on Lake Conroe in the greater Houston area and he returned to work for a few years to fill in for vacationing doctors in Oklahoma and Texas.

Together, they enjoyed traveling outside the country, tennis camp on the East Coast during autumn, having guests for dinner, classical music, going to the theatre, a fierce game of bridge, and quality time with their children and grandchildren and their families. Avram’s passions included river and ocean fishing, sailing, chess, running, tennis, golf, gardening, and competitive bridge.

Like his immigrant parents, Avram prioritized hard work and education and encouraged his children to do the same. He planned family trips to U.S. national parks and monuments, museums, and Israel, and treated his children to meaningful trips separately. He wrote that one of his and Martha’s greatest pleasures was to nurture and provide opportunities that would allow their children and grandchildren to pursue their interests and enhance the quality of their lives.

He was a longtime member of the KU Alumni Association, B’nai B’rith International, Temple Brotherhood, and a member and volunteer at Temple Ramat Zion in Northridge and Congregation B’nai Emunah and Temple Israel in Tulsa while his children were growing up.

Avram was preceded in death by his parents; sisters, Mildred Oelbaum, Jacobah Lazarus, and Ranore L. Davison; brother, Mortimer W. Rosenthal; and two of his five children, Sheryl Ann Rosenthal (Nathan Appel) and Baby Boy Rosenthal, buried in Jerusalem and Kansas City, respectively. He is survived by his wife of 40 years, Martha Rae Rosenthal of Oklahoma City; sons, Howard N. Rosenthal (Aaris Sherin) of Nyack, New York, and Michael L. Rosenthal (Danni) of Littleton, Colorado; daughter, Wendy J. Rosenthal of Salinas, California; stepdaughter, Deborah L. Thompson of Nichols Hills, Oklahoma; six grandchildren; eight great-grandchildren; and nieces and nephews.

The family wishes to thank the many friends and staff members at The Village at Gleannloch Farms in Spring for their kindness, his 24/7 caregivers from Innovative Home Services for their compassionate and dedicated care during the last two years of Avram’s life, Erin Mansour of Heart to Heart Hospice, Rabbi Jonathan Siger of Congregation Jewish Community North in Spring, and Rabbi Edwin C. Goldberg of Congregation Beth Shalom in The Woodlands.

At Avram’s request, there will be no memorial services. His cremains will be combined with Martha’s when the time arrives and they will be interred together at Floral Haven in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, where Martha’s parents and first husband lay at rest.

Avram lived a purposeful, productive, meaningful, and fulfilling life. He is deeply missed.