By Bruce Hershfield, MD
[Fall 2003; Vol. 30, No. 1; Pg 9]
On August 25, 2002, Dr. Raphael Nigrin, a psychiatrist who taught at Sheppard-Pratt, Seton Institute, and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, died of a massive heart attack he suffered while playing at a Bay Bridge Tournament. His wife commented that he died 14 hours after being stricken and that “until the last moment all the family surrounded him.” He is survived by Mrs. Nigrin and by their daughter, who is a medical technologist, and by their son, who has a doctorate in Artificial Intelligence, as well as by 5 grandchildren.
Originally from Istanbul, where he became a neuro-psychiatrist, he came to the USA and did a psychiatry residency at the University of Virginia. He then came to Maryland to work at the Seton Institute, which assigned him once per week to teach medical students at Johns Hopkins. He came to Sheppard-Pratt around the time that Seton closed in 1973 and he remained there until he retired.
I was assigned to Dr. Nigrin’s service at Sheppard-Pratt when I came to Maryland in 1974. He knew so much about psychiatry that I would tease him by pointing out that he had had two psychiatric residencies. I would frequently see him at lectures, not only at the MPS, but even as far afield as in North Carolina. He was always polite and kind and I never heard him say a harsh word in the 4 years I worked with him. I would seek his advice even after I left Sheppard. He was always willing to help.
On behalf of the many students he befriended as well as taught, I want to echo what Mrs. Nigrin wrote about him in a letter after his death: ”We all miss him a lot.”