Sydney Natelson

Sydney Natelson, who in an extraordinary career as a country doctor saved countless lives, died of old age Aug. 21, 2007, in Kalispell.

Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., to impoverished immigrant parents, he was the 11th of 13 children, 10 of whom lived to adulthood. It was a talented family. Among the brothers were Morris Natelson, later a highly prominent Wall Street investment banker, and Dr. Samuel Natelson, who became an internationally known scientist and inventor of medical technology.

While a young man, Sydney earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the City College of New York and a master's degree in mathematics from New York University. He worked both in retailing and as a high-school teacher. During World War II, he volunteered for military service four times, to three different branches of the service, but was rejected each time because of a leg injury received in childhood.

Eventually, Sydney's extended family scraped up enough money to send him to a medical school in Waltham, Mass., that is now part of the campus of Brandeis University. Upon graduation from medical school, he ranked first in his class.

It was in medical school also that he met his future wife, Florence Ackles, then working as a nurse. They married Dec. 26, 1943.

After serving residencies in New York City, the now-Dr. Natelson practiced briefly in Yonkers, N.Y., and then settled down to a general practice in the Hudson Valley town of Stony Point, N.Y. Stony Point was then a sleepy farming community where people grew apples, corn, cattle and poultry, and where people assessed their importance by how many generations their ancestors had lived there. Initially the town's only physician, Dr. Natelson he embarked upon a stunning medical career that continued until 1990.

His reputation spread quickly beyond Stony Point to the surrounding area. He was particularly respected among his peers as a diagnostician. He was prominent among physicians at the Nyack Hospital in Nyack, N.Y., served part-time as Stony Point health officer, and was one of the first physicians in the nation to earn a diploma in family practice when that field become a recognized medical specialty.

More importantly, he was a dedicated, people-oriented family doctor who did not protect himself from patients, but interacted with them. Throughout his career, he fixed his schedule by the needs of the patients. His family often woke in the morning to find that he had been gone all night, delivering a baby or caring for a very ill patient. He served in a variety of community-service positions, and provided extensive no-cost and low-cost care for the poor. He never charged a fellow physician, and he never charged a member of the clergy of any denomination. He continued to make house calls until retirement in 1990.

The number of lives he saved is estimated to be in the thousands. He strongly believed in a "hands-on" approach to health care. While he embraced advances in medical technology, he was also convinced that some modern physicians were using technology as a substitute for interacting with their patients. He firmly believed that the growing intrusion of third-party payers - government and insurance companies - into medical practice was driving up costs and damaging the welfare of patients.

Dr. Natelson's life was not all medicine. He was a dedicated family man, an enthusiastic, though generally unlucky, fisherman, and a member of several Jewish congregations during the course of his lifetime. He loved the woods, and spent time there when he could. As a young man, he played baseball in organized leagues in New York City. He also was a fan first of the Brooklyn Dodgers, and later of the New York Mets.

After retirement in 1990, Dr. Natelson and his wife moved first to rural New Jersey and in 2000 to Kalispell. Shortly after the move to Kalispell, however, Dr. Natelson was incapacitated by a series of transitory ischemic attacks (TIAs), and moved to a nursing home, where he died nearly seven years later.

Besides his widow, Florence Ackles Natelson, of Kalispell, he leaves surviving him his elder son, Rob Natelson, of Missoula, a law professor at the University of Montana and runner-up in the 2000 primary election for governor of Montana; Rob's wife, Betty; and their children, Rebecca, Deborah, and Sarah; and a younger son, Dr. Richard Natelson, an obstetrician and gynecologist in Salmon, Idaho; Richard's wife, Holly; and their children, Colton and Hannah.