COZUMEL, Mexico (1 Apr 2009) — Dr. Leon Love built a robust radiology department at Loyola University Medical Center and taught the art of medical imaging to several generations of doctors. Dr. Love, 85, of Glencoe, died, apparently of a heart attack, while snorkeling with his wife, Rita, in the waters off Cozumel, Mexico, on Tuesday, March 24, said his son Matthew. An experienced snorkeler, Dr. Love was holding his wife's hand because he sometimes became distracted by the beauty of the fish and coral and swam off on his own, his son said. He let go, but his wife was able to get him to shore. Dr. Love joined Loyola in 1969 not long after the Maywood hospital opened. As chairman of radiology for the hospital and Stritch School of Medicine for 17 years, he oversaw the residency program and employed a rigorous, Socratic method of instruction for hundreds of young radiologists. "He had a lot of broad knowledge of radiology," said Dr. Richard Cooper, a professor of radiology at Stritch who was a resident under Dr. Love from 1972 to 1975. "You enjoyed working with him. He made it pleasant to study with him." Loyola in 1974 was the second hospital in the Chicago area to get a cutting-edge computerized brain scanner, one of several advances that revolutionized the field of radiology during his tenure. Dr. Love's research specialty centered on the kidneys and urology, and he published hundreds of papers while also writing a regular column in a radiology journal. Over the course of his career, he took two nine-month working sabbaticals at Guy's Hospital in London. In 1991, Loyola awarded Dr. Love its Stritch Medal in recognition of his outstanding service to medicine. Dr. Love grew up in the Bronx, the son of a Russian immigrant who worked in the garment industry. Shut out by many medical schools that had Jewish quotas at the time, he traveled west for a medical degree at Chicago Medical School, now part of Rosalind Franklin University, his son said. | | A mentor suggested he specialize in radiology. "He looked into it, liked it and had a natural aptitude for it," his son said. After two years in the Army, where he worked in radiology at Ft. Leonard Wood in Missouri, he joined the staff at Cook County Hospital in 1956. He was chairman of Cook County's radiology department when he became one of many doctors who left during a troubled period for that hospital. Many, like him, went to Loyola. He retired from Loyola in 1994 but continued to teach one day a week at Chicago Medical School at Rosalind Franklin University until his death. Dr. Love is also survived by another son, Jonathan; a daughter, Emily; a brother, Hyman; and four grandchildren. Services are set for 1:30 p.m. Sunday in North Shore Congregation Israel, 1185 Sheridan Rd., Glencoe. by Trevor Jensen |
