Dr. Peter Yurchak, master of bedside teaching; at 74
One of Peter Yurchak's specialties as a cardiologist, his daughter said, was reading electrocardiograms to discern the sounds of the heart.
As he examined each person, including himself, Dr. Yurchak went beyond studying the charts of electrical activity generated as a cardiac muscle pulsed with the rhythm of life. He read deeply in sundry fields and memorized many passages. There was, he believed, just the right quote for every juncture, every patient, every heartbeat.
"I've never heard him give a toast or write a letter or give a speech without quoting someone," said his daughter, Patricia Rexford of Chicago. "I think the man had memorized Bartlett's in its entirety. He always had some bon mot for the occasion."
As much a teacher as a physician, Dr. Yurchak received three awards for excellence in teaching from Harvard Medical School, where he was an assistant clinical professor of medicine. He died of pancreatic cancer July 30 in Massachusetts General Hospital, where until last year he was director of the training program in cardiology. Dr. Yurchak was 74 and had lived in Wellesley.
"I think his real mark was as a teacher," said Dr. Roman DeSanctis, director of clinical cardiology emeritus at Mass. General. "I've been at the Mass. General for 52 years and I don't know anyone who has thrown himself into clinical teaching like Dr. Yurchak. He just was teaching all the time."
Dr. Yurchak's son, Michael of Los Angeles, said: "It's impossible to think of him without thinking of his incredible sense of integrity and honor. He saw his duties as both a physician and educator as a higher calling, an obligation and then some. That really defined him. He derived so much pleasure from it, but also felt he understood that it was what he was meant to do, to help save people and to teach others to do the same."
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Peter Michael Yurchak was 16 when he graduated from Wyoming Seminary, a prep school in nearby Kingston. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1953 and from Harvard Medical School four years later.
Dr. Yurchak spent two years in the US Air Force, beginning in 1959, and was posted in England.
At Mass. General, he had supervised the cardiology fellows clinic since 1970 and began directing the cardiology training program in 1994. Last year, colleagues and former students gathered in Cambridge for his retirement dinner, which his family attended.
"We sat and watched generation after generation of previous students speak so fondly of him, with admiration and thanks," his son said. "I was just so blown away with how proud I felt. I sat mouth agape. It wasn't that I was surprised the respect existed. It was just so incredible to see this huge room filled with the brightest of the brightest singing his praises. Not because of any one particular accomplishment, but of this body of work and this lifelong dedication to the medical school and the students. It was a beautiful thing to see, really."
DeSanctis, who shared an office suite with Dr. Yurchak for two decades, said his friend was a master of bedside teaching, that impromptu classroom that forms right next to the patient being treated.
"He was one of the most patient, gentle people you ever would want to know," DeSanctis said.
"He was a consummate educator," Dr. Yurchak's daughter said. "He taught forever."
And he kept studying just as long. In the basement of his house, Dr. Yurchak kept a small catacomb of files in which he cataloged his intellectual journey. One file, his son said, was simply called "midnight musings."
"He was on a constant quest for knowledge and truth," said Dr. Yurchak's former wife, Mary Jane Yurchak of Washington, Conn. "And that extended beyond medical practice into the world of literature, knowledge of people, and relationships with his patients. He was truly the most brilliant man I've ever known and in some ways the wisest."
Dr. Yurchak "was kind of a special guy," DeSanctis said. "He had an extraordinary sense of humor, a whimsical, quick sense of humor. I think he was a student of the language, and he used it very well, in speech and writing. His patient notes were wonderful and often quite funny."
"He loved to write," his daughter said. "He often communicated by letter. And they weren't letters; they were epistles. Why use a 5-cent word when you can use a 25-cent word?"
Developing a scholarly erudition and an encyclopedic memory of quotations that ranged outside the realm of cardiology were part of his intellectual quest, Mary Jane Yurchak said.
"He sought knowledge and understanding beyond the world of medicine and applied it to his practice," she said. "His quotes were more than citing words that others had said. He looked for the truth in their words and their ideas, and beyond those truths to greater things."
In addition to his daughter and son, Dr. Yurchak leaves his wife, Nancy Woods Downs Yurchak of Wellesley; another daughter, Kathleen of Chicago; three stepsons, Christopher Downs of Trout Creek, Mont., and Matthew Downs and Stephen Downs, both of Boston; a brother, Dr. Anthony Yurchak of Buffalo; and three grandchildren.
A memorial Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Sept. 7 in St. John the Evangelist Church in Wellesley. A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Sept. 8 in Memorial Church at Harvard University.
