Judith Kubzansky, 70; hospital CEO active in healthcare

Judith Kubzansky founded the Watertown Health Center.

Judith Kubzansky, a former chief hospital administrator, died Sept. 20 after a long battle with scleroderma. She was 70.

Mrs. Kubzansky was active in the local healthcare industry; she founded the Watertown Health Center and served as chief executive officer at Plymouth County Hospital, which she helped renovate and rename the Cranberry Specialty Hospital. She increased fund-raising, generating $12 million in revenue and break-even status before leaving in 1993.

Mrs. Kubzansky was born in Brooklyn, N.Y. She and her family lived briefly in Pittsfield before moving to Bridgeport, Conn., where Mrs. Kubzansky spent the majority of her youth. She graduated from Bassick High School in 1955.

Mrs. Kubzansky attended Simmons College in Boston, before earning her master's degree from the International Institute of Social Studies in The Hague in the late 1950s.

She later received her master of business administration degree from Boston University in the mid-1970s.

In 1962, Mrs. Kubzansky married Philip Eugene Kubzansky. He died in 2002, said their daughter, Jessica of Los Angeles.

Mrs. Kubzansky began her healthcare career in 1977 by founding the Watertown Health Center under the auspices of Caritas St. Elizabeth's Medical Center. The Watertown center grew to attract 18,000 annual visits and contributed around $2 million in additional revenue for St. Elizabeth's. She subsequently became the director of ambulatory care and assistant director of St. Elizabeth's, where she worked until 1986.

Mrs. Kubzansky then left the medical center to become an associate administrator at Cambridge Hospital, a Harvard University teaching facility. In 1998, she became chief executive of Plymouth Hospital.

Mrs. Kubzansky also was chief executive of the Easter Seal Society of Rhode Island; executive director of Springhouse, a continuing care and assisted-living facility in Jamaica Plain; and founded SpinGOLD fund-raisers, a nonprofit fund-raising agency.

In addition to her professional work, Mrs. Kubzansky served on many boards and committees, including the Massachusetts Public Health Association, the Brockton Neighborhood Health Center, and the New England Physicians Services, which she served as president.

She also was a dedicated philanthropist, helping raise funds for nonprofits such as the Kit Clark Senior Services in Dorchester and working with the St. Boniface Haiti Foundation, through which she helped get specialized healthcare for several ailing Haitian children.

In addition to her daughter, Mrs. Kubzansky leaves another daughter, Laura Diane of Belmont; a son, Michael Samuel of Washington, D.C.; a brother, J. Daniel Sagarin, of Guilford, Conn.; and four grandchildren. Services have been held.