The Weill Department of Medicine and Weill Cornell Medical College mourns the passing of Dr. Jeremiah A. Barondess, who passed away on October 30, 2026 at the age of 102.
During his decades long tenure at the medical center, Dr. Barondess was amongst our most distinguished physicians, serving on the medical staff from 1955-1990. Known as a master diagnostician, a wise colleague, and generous mentor, he embodied the Oslerian spirit as a general internist with deep and broad knowledge of clinical medicine. At the time of his death, Dr. Barondess held the role of Emeritus Professor of Clinical Medicine.
After Army service during World War II, Dr. Barondess graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and served as a house officer on the Osler Service at Hopkins. He completed a research fellowship in virology at the University of Pennsylvania before coming to The New York Hospital, where he served as Medical Chief Resident. He had a storied career as an internist, serving as associate chair of the Department of Medicine and the William T. Foley Distinguished Professor of Clinical Medicine. Among his many honors, Dr. Barondess was elected a member of the inaugural class of the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was President Emeritus of the American College of Physicians, a Master of the College, and former president of the New York Academy of Medicine, Alpha Omega Alpha, and the American Osler Society. He held four honorary degrees and was elected to Honorary Fellowship in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, the Royal Society of Medicine, and the Royal College of Physicians of London.
At the medical center, Dr. Barondess was a legendary presence to generations of New York Hospital house officers and Cornell medical students who attended his famed “Barondess Rounds.” Done at the bedside, they were elegant exemplars of bedside reasoning and what he lovingly called the “clinical transaction.” And while house staff tried to stump a professor who they reverently called “the Duke,” Dr. Barondess always seemed to sleuth out a brilliant differential diagnosis.
A witty and prolific commentator on clinical practice and health policy, Dr. Barondess revitalized the New York Academy of Medicine, turning its focus to the then neglected topic of urban health. Dr. Barondess was a prolific scholar until his final days. Upon turning 100, he wrote a reflective "rumination" for the AOA Pharos in 2024. He observed that, “I’ve advised medical students over the years to be careful in the selection of their ambitions because they’re likely to realize them.”
Over the course of a truly wonderfully long and productive career, Dr. Barondess more than realized his ambitions and set countless generations of students, residents, and fellows off on their own journeys in medicine. He was truly one of the great ones and will be missed by all who benefitted from his superb care and wise counsel.
Myles Wolf, MD, MMSc
Sanford I. Weill Chair of Medicine
Robert A. Harrington, MD
Stephen and Suzanne Weiss Dean of Weill Cornell Medicine
Joseph J. Fins, MD
Chief of the Division of Medical Ethics