During his 42-year OB-GYN practice, Abraham Velkoff delivered more than 5,000 babies and helped hundreds of women struggling with infertility.
After retirement, he went from helping women to get pregnant to encouraging teenagers at Grady Memorial Hospital to avoid it.
Among his deliveries, Velkoff ushered the births of consumer advocate Clark Howard and retired NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw’s first child. In the 1960s, when an eight-months-pregnant Barbara Streisand insisted on having a local obstetrician in the audience for her concert at the Fox Theatre, Velkoff was on call. In many families, he delivered at least two generations.
“Abe was a giant among giants – a spectacular physician, a dedicated volunteer teacher at Grady, a pioneer in his specialty and a Renaissance man – music, art, storytelling, pickle-making,” said Nanette K. Wenger, a professor of medicine at the Emory School of Medicine and past chief of cardiology at Grady.
He also delivered her three children, Wenger said. “His generous nature, hearty laugh and wonderful smile will be missed by so many in our community,” she said.
Velkoff of Atlanta died June 6 at the age of 102. A graveside service was held June 8 at Arlington Memorial Park in Sandy Springs.
The native New Yorker was born on July 20, 1912, in the Bronx to Orthodox Russian immigrants. His father was a kosher butcher. While a student at Columbia University, he played tuba in the marching band and violin in the orchestra. He later moved to Atlanta, where he earned a medical degree at Emory and completed his internship at Grady Memorial Hospital.
In 1941, he married Evelyn Weinkle of Atlanta, and they had four children. He joined the Army and served as a surgeon in the South Pacific during World War II.
After the war, he studied infertility and obstetrics and gynecology at the Rubin Clinic of Mt. Sinai Hospital and Cornell Medical School in New York.
In 1946, he opened his practice in Atlanta, which became a pioneer in infertility treatment in the city.
“He was the infertility doctor [in Atlanta]. He probably did more with infertility before in vitro fertilization started,” said retired OB-GYN Leroy Moyer, who worked in the practice with Velkoff for more than 20 years. “He really had a fine reputation for infertility work. He had a very good success rate. People came from all over.”
Velkoff’s first infertility patient, a Savannah resident, gave birth to a daughter who later became a patient. After he successfully treated infertility in a member of Italy’s Buitoni family, famous for perugina candy, the mother-to-be returned to Atlanta from Italy so that Velkoff could deliver her baby.
Friends and former patients admired his expertise and appreciated his thoughtfulness, candor and quick wit.
While on call at the hospital, he would pay for and pick up meals for labor and delivery staff. He also could be blunt with patients.
“He had this booming voice. He would tell it like it is,” Moyer said. “He would say you need to lose weight. He did it in such a way that people accepted it and realized he was telling the truth.”
For 11 years, he taught the sex education and contraception part of the marriage classes at Agnes Scott College, his wife’s alma mater.
After retiring at age 75, he returned to Grady Hospital as a volunteer, saying that he wanted to focus on preventing “children from having children.” He also mentored younger doctors.
Velkoff drove himself to the hospital until he broke a hip at age 99.
In his spare time, Velkoff played with the Atlanta Community Orchestra for a while. He also enjoyed fishing, reading, traveling and spending time with his family.
Velkoff is survived by his sons Michael Velkoff of San Rafael, Calif., and David Velkoff of Los Angeles; daughters Debbie Gussoff and Ann Podber of Atlanta; four grandchildren, one great-grandchild and longtime companion Judy Syna of Atlanta.
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