HELLERSTEIN, HERMAN KOPEL

HELLERSTEIN, HERMAN KOPEL (6 June 1916-17 Aug. 1993) won recognition as a Cleveland cardiologist for his studies that made it possible for most heart patients to continue leading productive lives. Born in Dillonvale, O., he was the son of Russian immigrants Samuel and Cecilia Zeiger Hellerstein. In 1929 the family moved to SHAKER HTS., allowing Hellerstein to attend Shaker Hts. High School and Western Reserve University (see CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY). After graduating from the WRU School of Medicine in 1941, he served a year's internship in Philadelphia before entering the U.S. Army Medical Corps in WORLD WAR II. He rose to the rank of major through 5 European campaigns, winning the Silver Star and Bronze Star and participating in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camps. Hellerstein joined the staff of UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS in 1947. He established the Work Classification Clinic of the Cleveland Area Heart Society (see AMERICAN HEART ASSN. [AHA], NORTHEAST OHIO AFFILIATE, INC.) in 1950, serving as its director until 1963. There his monitoring of 2,700 heart patients led to his advocacy of work and exercise for victims of heart attacks. Hellerstein also taught at the CWRU School of Medicine from 1950 to his death, becoming emeritus in 1986. He published 384 papers and contributed to 20 books. He was the co-author of Healing Your Heart (1990), and his autobiography, A Matter of Heart (1994), was published posthumously. He served as co-director of the National Exercise and Heart Disease Project for the U.S. Dept. of Health, Education and Welfare and on the scientific committee of the International Federation of Sports Medicine. In 1988 he was named one of 14 local pioneers in cardiology by the American Heart Assn. and the Cleveland Health Education Museum (see HEALTH MUSEUM). He was married since 1947 to Mary Feil Hellerstein, an asst. clinical professor in pediatrics at CWRU. He died in Cleveland, survived by his wife and 6 children: Kathryn, David, Jonathan, Daniel, Susan, and Elizabeth.


Hellerstein, Herman K. and Snyder, Adam. A Matter of Heart (1994).


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