Dr. Gary Schechter was inducted as an Active Fellow in 1992 and elevated to emeritus status in 2007. He passed away September 15th, 2019, from a traumatic brain injury suffered in a fall.
A native New Yorker, Dr. Schechter attended Syracuse University, graduating Summa Cum Laude, first in his class, from the State of New York College of Medicine, Upstate in 1963. This was followed with an internship at Montefiore Hospital. Afterwards, Dr. Schechter served with the United States Public Health Service Hospitals, Norfolk and Baltimore from 1964-67. He then completed his residency in Otolaryngology and a NINDS Training Fellowship in Otolaryngology at the Washington University/Barnes Hospital in St Louis, Missouri in 1970.
He began his professional career on the faculty of the Department of Ear, Nose and Throat at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas, Dr. Schechter returned to Norfolk to become the founding Chairman of the Department of Ear, Nose and Throat Surgeons at the Eastern Virginia Medical School. There, he developed a Residency program, a Research division, a Hearing and Balance Center, and one of the countries’ s leading Head and Neck Cancer practices. He also was a member of numerous state and national medical organizations.
Dr. Schechter, retired in 1999 as Professor and Chairman Emeritus, and then shared his time between Virginia and Naples, Florida.