Private Practice

Dr. Oscar Hartman, a retired Baltimore-area obstetrician and longtime Lutherville resident, died Oct. 28 of cancer at Heartland, a rehabilitation facility in Sarasota, Fla. He was 93. Dr. Hartman, the son of a baker and homemaker, was born and raised in Baltimore. He was a 1931 graduate of City College and earned a bachelor's degree in 1935 from the University of Maryland, College Park. After graduating in 1939 from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, he completed his internship and residency at Franklin Square Hospital, where he was chief of obstetrics and gynecology for two years.

Dr. Edwin H. T. Besson, a retired pediatrician who was the former chairman of the St. Agnes Hospital pediatric department, died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, Dec. 4 at his Ellicott City home. He was 85. In a memoir, he recalled that after his birth in Carbondale, Pa., he often moved with his family and wound up living in the small town of Stockton in Worcester County. His family had suffered economic hardship in the Depression and they lost their home.

We have just one question for Kim Y. Johnson, the Baltimore Police Department official who has been representing criminal suspects and shepherding clients through bankruptcy for years: How do you find time to defend alleged drug dealers, thieves and deadbeat debtors while doing the city's business? Last week, The Baltimore Sun's Justin Fenton reported that Ms. Johnson, who earned $85,000 in 2008 from her police job investigating racial discrimination complaints in the department, also has a private practice defending people charged with serious crimes by her police colleagues.

Dr. Carol Cooper has taken an alternative path to healing the sick and the weary. A graduate of University of Maryland School of Medicine, Dr. Copper has been practicing family medicine for over 20 years. But sensing a frustration in her patients and a need to explore her interest in alternative medicine, Havre de Grace resident Dr. Cooper recently completed an additional 300 hours of training in acupuncture in order to narrow her field of practice to medical acupuncture. “About 15 years ago, I had a back problem and I went to a doctor who practiced acupuncture.

The Court of Appeals is considering whether to disbar a lawyer for the city housing authority for failure to pay withholding taxes when she was in private practice.The lawyer, Sheila Brooks-Tahir, has worked as a litigator for the authority for six months. Before that, she was a contract employee of the city solicitor's office for a brief period.City officials declined to comment, other than to confirm Brooks-Tahir's employment.It is not clear whether they knew before hiring her of long-standing questions about management of her Salisbury law practice from 1988 to 1994.

The man who entered medicine "basically to treat people and to help solve their problems" is leaving administrative problem-solving at Springfield Hospital Center and returning to private practice.Dr. Bruce Hershfield, superintendent of the Sykesville hospital since 1986, eschews complacency and derives job satisfaction from challenges, often of his own making."Most of what you learn on a job, you learn the first year," he said. "After that, you polish."After six years of polishing, improving patient-to-staff ratios and adding innovative programs to the state's largest psychiatric hospital, he said, the time has come for a career change and a new challenge.

The man who entered medicine "basically to treat people and to help solve their problems" is leaving administrative problem-solving at Springfield Hospital Center and returning to private practice.Dr. Bruce Hershfield, superintendent of the Sykesville hospital since 1986, eschews complacency and derives job satisfaction from challenges, often of his own making."Most of what you learn on a job, you learn the first year," he said. "After that, you polish."After six years of polishing, improving patient-to-staff ratios and adding innovative programs to the state's largest psychiatric hospital, he said, the time has come for a career change and a new challenge.

Dr. Albert Grant, a retired cardiologist who believed that his heart attack patients need not lead a sedentary life, died of a stroke Thursday at Delray Medical Center in Delray, Fla. The former Northwest Baltimore was resident was 89. Born Albert Gubnitsky in Baltimore and raised on North Broadway, he later changed his name to Grant. A 1936 City College graduate, he commuted to the University of Maryland, College Park, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1940. He then enrolled at the University of Maryland's School of Medicine and received a degree in 1943.

Dr. Frank W. Davis Jr., a respected Baltimore cardiologist who managed to combine a private practice, research and teaching during his 50-year career, died Friday of complications from emphysema at his Owings Mills home. He was 85. Dr. Davis, the son of an oral surgeon and a homemaker, was born and raised in Asheville, N.C. After graduation from Edwards High School in Asheville, he earned his bachelor's and medical degrees from Duke University. In 1946, he came to Baltimore to complete his medical internship and residency in cardiology at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

When the Democratic Party asked Columbia attorney Sherae M. McNeal to run for judge of the Orphans' Court this year, someone probably should have mentioned that to hold the job, she would have to quit her law practice.But apparently party officials and McNeal didn't know that in Howard County, practicing attorneys can't serve as Orphans' Court judges, who are paid about $6,000 a year for their part-time work.Someone finally informed McNeal this month, a month after her election victory and shortly after her Dec. 2 swearing-in.

Stefanie F. Bergey, a child psychologist, died Nov. 9 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig's disease, at her Homeland residence. She was 62. Stefanie Friday Antonakos was born in Athens, and when she was a young child, she immigrated with her family to Morristown, N.J. After graduating from Morristown High School in 1967, she earned a degree in child psychology from Douglass College of Rutgers University in New Brunswick....

Dr. Jamshid Hamed, a retired internist whose specialty was rheumatology, died Nov. 8 of cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 81. "Jim made no distinction between his patients and friends. He was a wonderfully caring doctor and a great diagnostician, and for years had been a prominent member of the Greater Baltimore Medical Center family," said Dr. Thomas F. Lansdale III, a Baltimore internist who cared for Dr. Hamed in his final illness. The son of a merchant and a homemaker, Dr. Hamed, who was known as "Jim," was born and raised in Smarkand, Uzbekistan, which is on the Silk Road, family members said.

Dr. Ross Joseph Brechner, a mathematician turned ophthalmologist who abandoned private practice for a second career in public health, died Aug. 4 of heart disease at his Catonsville home. He was 71. "Ross was a fine ophthalmologist who changed careers late in life after being a highly trained epidemiologist. He was passionate about finding a better way to treat patients with a variety of diseases including blindness of the eyes," said Dr. Morton F. Goldberg, former director of the Wilmer Eye Institute and professor of ophthalmology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

Mary Lacy Fetting, a retired psychotherapist who counseled the homeless at the Franciscan Center as a volunteer, died of cancer Wednesday at her Guilford home. She was 82. Born Mary Lacy in Baltimore, she was the daughter of James J. Lacy, an iron foundry owner and state comptroller from 1947 to 1950, and the former Rose Daily. She was raised on Oakenshaw Place and Fenchurch Road and was a 1945 Mount Saint Agnes High School graduate. She was the valedictorian and president of her class.

Dr. Jamshid Hamed, a retired internist whose specialty was rheumatology, died Nov. 8 of cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. He was 81. "Jim made no distinction between his patients and friends. He was a wonderfully caring doctor and a great diagnostician, and for years had been a prominent member of the Greater Baltimore Medical Center family," said Dr. Thomas F. Lansdale III, a Baltimore internist who cared for Dr. Hamed in his final illness. The son of a merchant and a homemaker, Dr. Hamed, who was known as "Jim," was born and raised in Smarkand, Uzbekistan, which is on the Silk Road, family members said.