Paul Schenker, a retired Baltimore surgeon who had been the oldest alumnus of the University of Maryland School of Medicine and City College, died Monday of heart failure at Sinai Hospital. He was 106.
He was born in Baltimore, the son of Russian immigrants. His father was a tailor and his mother was a homemaker, and he was raised in the 1900 block of E. Pratt St.
As a youngster, he sold newspapers on street corners.
"He remembered selling newspapers the day the Titanic went down," said a daughter, Donna M. Shapiro of Pikesville.
In 2006, Dr. Schenker recalled in an interview with The Sun the fear that gripped the city during the 1918 influenza epidemic and of his mother falling ill with the dreaded disease and of her eventual recovery.
"Everyone was frightened," he said in the interview. "I was frightened. I knew it was a deadly disease."
He recalled his mother's good fortune when a neighborhood physician was able to make a house call to check her condition and of flu victims lining up to purchase such remedies as camphor, aspirin and quinine to fight the flu.
Dr. Schenker, who was a 1920 graduate of City College and attended Mount Vernon College, worked his way through the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he earned his degree in 1926.
"He had wanted to be an engineer but because of anti-Semitism in the profession in those days, his mother and grandmother said he was going to become a doctor," Mrs. Shapiro said.
"They said, 'You're going to become a surgeon so you can help people, and you're not going to charge them.' "
After completing a three-year internship at the old Lutheran Hospital, Dr. Schenker established a general surgical practice at 1919 E. North Ave., and later moved to 2424 Eutaw Place.
He held privileges at Sinai Hospital and Doctors Hospital and in the mid-1930s was appointed a Baltimore city coroner by Gov. Harry W. Nice.
After retiring from his practice in 1964, he worked another 25 years for the Veterans Administration until retiring again in 1989.
"He did a lot of work for which he was never paid. People would say, 'Doc, I can't pay,' and he'd say, 'That's OK,' " his daughter said.
In 2008, the University of Maryland School of Medicine presented its first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award to Dr. Schenker.
"He was our oldest living alumnus, and for us that was a big deal. He was very special," said E. Albert Reece, dean of the medical school, who presented the award.
