Larry Fleischmann

Dr. Larry E. Fleischmann, MD, Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at Wayne State University and past president of Children's Hospital of Michigan, died Friday December 23, 2016 at age 79 after fighting off small cell lung cancer for a year. He is survived by his beloved wife of 59 years Pat (Margaret), sisters Kathleen (Ted) and Ruth (Charlie), brother Tom (Mary), sons Arthur, William (Kathleen), and Michael, grandsons John and Adam, and their mother Deborah. He is remembered fondly by many loving nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews. He served his calling as a physician by excelling across the full breadth of his profession, as a pioneering clinician-healer, educator, researcher, and healthcare executive. His career at Children's Hospital of Michigan spanned 48 years, beginning as chief resident. He was one of the first pediatric nephrologists in the country, and in 1969 established the renal dialysis and kidney transplant programs at Children's, where his patients included those who were the first in the state of Michigan to receive pediatric dialysis and the first recipient of a pediatric kidney transplant. In a new clinical discipline, his research and foundational understanding of fluid and electrolyte management in the blood gave him a nuanced ability to manage the most challenging cases. He was a trusted colleague and consulting physician. Earlier this year, the hospital's dialysis center was named for him. In addition to training generations of medical students and pediatric nephrologists, he also served the Department of Pediatrics and Children's in numerous leadership roles, including Chief of Staff, Senior Vice President and President of the Hospital. He was honored to serve the Children's Hospital of Michigan Foundation as a trustee and for two stints as interim President of the Foundation. He received the March of Dimes Humanitarian of the Year Award and the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan Champion of Hope Award. In 2007, he was selected to receive the School of Medicine's Pathfinder in Medicine Award, which honors outstanding vision and leadership in medicine and progressive scientific research. He retired in 2015 as Professor Emeritus of Pediatrics at Wayne State University. Though he contracted polio in his high school yearsduring the summer of the Salk vaccine field trials, which doubtless contributed to his finding a calling in MedicineLarry's full recovery allowed him to remain an avid and competitive golfer throughout his adult life. A loyal member of the Detroit Golf Club, he was pleased that he could pursue his profession yet remain competitive at "a pretty fast track." He looked forward to competing in the Club's annual Whistler tournament and later in the Super Seniors as well, and proudly displayed the championship hardware he earned in each. He also enjoyed the camaraderie of the clubhouse, and over the last year missed his regular gin rummy game ("and I'm sure they miss my money," he would add with a twinkle). Traveling to Cape Cod for the American Senior Golfers Association Clam Bake tournament was another pleasure he looked forward to every year. Larry and his wife Pat were married for 59 years. They grew up in Saginaw, Michigan, and met during their junior year at St. Andrew High School. They were married while he was an undergraduate at University of Detroit and welcomed their first son, Art, in those years. Sons Bill and Mike arrived during Larry's medical training at The Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He and Pat shared a lifelong passion for thoroughbred racing that was sparked in those years in Baltimore. From 1961 through 2015, they attended together 54 out of 55 runnings of the Preakness Stakes (missing only Secretariat's Triple Crown year). The serendipity of their annual seat assignments at Pimlico turned nearby strangers into familiar faces, and those familiar faces developed into dear friendships that have lasted now through many decades. Those friendships also introduced Larry and Pat to the idea that they, too, could become owners of a small stable of race horses, so they established "Mi-Pat Farms" whose horses raced mostly in Florida and Illinois in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Those fortunate to have known Larry will remember his mile-wide intellectual curiosity and ability to recollect where it brought him ("he knew something about everything" his niece recalled), his sense of humor and his enjoyment of a telling jokeoften a shaggy dog storywith the hearty laugh that followed. The family thanks all those devoted persons who participated in his care over the past year, in the ICU and hospital, to clinics and to home, from Karmanos Cancer Center and Johns Hopkins University to BrightStar Care. Memorial donations to the Larry E. Fleischmann Nephrology Education Endowment Fund at the Children's Hospital of Michigan Foundation will be appreciated.

Funeral Home:

A. H. Peters Funeral Home of Grosse Pointe

20705 Mack Avenue

Grosse Pointe Woods, MI

US 48236