Dr. Harvey Klein, one of the Weill Department of Medicine’s most beloved and respected physicians, passed away on August 12, 2020. The William S. Paley Professor of Clinical Medicine, Dr. Klein was a premier physician and educator at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center for 55 years. Throughout his remarkably distinguished career, Dr. Klein provided patient care to numerous patients, including dignitaries from around the world, taught hundreds of trainees, and exemplified the highest level of integrity and devotion to our medical center.
Dr. Klein served on the Weill Cornell Medicine’s Board of Overseers, as well as on numerous clinical and administrative committees at both the hospital and the medical college. In 2016, he was honored with The Maurice R. Greenberg Distinguished Service Award and recognized for his tireless dedication to every facet of his medical career, his thoughtful and skilled leadership, and his extraordinary dedication to patient care.
Dr. Klein earned his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1963 and served as a Chief Resident with our internal medicine residency training program during the 1960s. Following his residency training, he completed a fellowship in Gastroenterology at Weill Cornell. During his training Dr. Klein took a two-year hiatus to serve as a captain in the U.S. Air Force. He valued his time in the Air Force as a great learning experience in which he treated patients including military personnel, elderly veterans, and nearby Native Americans.
A Professor of Clinical Medicine in the WDOM, Dr. Klein had been a full-time physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital since 1970. Dr. Klein was a dedicated member of the Board of Overseer’s Committee on Student Affairs, in addition to serving on the Board of Directors of the medical center’s Music and Medicine Initiative, the New York Weill Cornell Medical Center Alumni Council, and the NewYork-Presbyterian’s Environment and Service Excellence Committee. In his honor, The Dr. Harvey Klein Professorship of Biomedical Sciences was created at Weill Cornell Medicine in the 1980s. In 2010, Dr. Klein and his wife Phyllis (Patti) endowed the Phyllis and Harvey Klein, MD Scholarship at Weill Cornell Medicine, which provides financial assistance for students pursuing careers in general internal medicine and primary care.
Dr. Klein will be deeply missed by this Department, his patients, trainees, colleagues, and friends.