The Association recently received notification that Dr. Myron J. Shapiro, an Emeritus Fellow, passed away on September 27, 2014 at the age of 93 years old in Morristown, New Jersey. Dr. Shapiro was inducted in 1979 as an Active Fellow and was elevated to Emeritus status in 2016. Born in Toronto, Canada, in 1921, he was one of the first Jewish students admitted to the University of Toronto’s medical school, where he studied under Sir Frederick Banting, who won the Nobel Prize in medicine for the first use of insulin in diabetes.
During a career that spanned more than six decades, Dr. Shapiro was recognized as a leading Head and neck Surgeon who pioneered surgical techniques. During his career, he built an international reputation for both his clinical and academic work in the firld of otolaryngology with a focus on cancer surgery. Following post-doctoral studies in Chicago, Illinois and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Dr. Shapiro settled in New Jersey in 1949, where he built a medical practice and was one of the founding faculty members of the New Jersey Medical School of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.
He authored more than 100 studies on tumors of the head and neck and pioneered multiple surgical procedures which continue to be used today. Following his retirement in 1990, he volunteered for more than two decades assisting elderly residents of the Morristown area in woodworking and furniture restoration. Dr. Shapiro’s wife of 37 years, Henrietta Asch Shapiro, died in 1982. He is survived by his longtime companion, Joan Goldman; his three children, Nancy J. Shapiro of Fort Myers, Florida; Peter Shapiro of South Orange, New Jersey; and Margaret (Pooh) Shapiro of Chevy Chase, Maryland. He also is survived by his four grandchildren, Samuel Shapiro, Alexandra Hiatt, Joseph Hiatt, and Nathaniel Hiatt.