Internist Sanford Shmerling’s customary advice to his patients, in addition to whatever medications or regimen he prescribed, was to tell them to start treatment with two big smiles and thereafter to break into broad grins at least three times a day.
He was that kind of healer, unfailingly upbeat. He had a knack for finding joy and humor in life whatever the situation, said a son, Gary Shmerling of Atlanta.
“Daddy would put his patients at ease with jokes,” said his daughter, Catherine Shmerling of Atlanta. “He’d rattle off gags like Rodney Dangerfield and get to laughing so hard his face turned red and his body shook.”
As a medical practitioner, Shmerling was of the old school, his daughter said. He employed a nurse who doubled as a receptionist-clerk and scheduled only six patients a day. “That way he could give each one his full attention, and no one waited past his or her appointment time,” she said.
Gary Shmerling said his father even made house calls. “Dad would get an urgent call from a patient on the weekend and grab his black bag and go,” his son said. “He also treated patients regardless of race at a time when that was frowned upon.”
Sanford Shmerling, 85, of Atlanta died Friday of heart failure at the William Bremen Jewish Home. His graveside service is 1 p.m. Sunday at Greenwood Cemetery. Dressler Jewish Funeral Care is in charge of arrangements.
For 34 years Shmerling was medical director for the Bremen Home.
Harley Tabak, the home’s chief executive officer, said, “Dr. Shmerling devoted a significant part of his medical career serving our very frail elderly residents with quality and compassionate care. The entire Bremen Home organization is very grateful for his service to the community.”
Regina Ford, the home’s director of nursing, said Shmerling was jovial and had a wonderful bedside manner, and the residents loved him. Eve Levine, the home’s director of human services, echoed that, calling Shmerling “a sweet man whom both residents and staff enjoyed tremendously.”
Beth Laxton, Bremen Home administrator, said Shmerling did an excellent job as medical director and was especially active on its medical-dental board, which reviewed credentials of all doctors and dentists who took care of the home’s residents.
In addition to being medical director at the Bremen Home, Shmerling also provided medical care for many seniors living at the Jewish Tower and Zaban Tower, both of which are senior independent-living facilities located near the Bremen Home’s Howell Mill Road campus.
Shmerling received his medical training at Emory University and the Medical School of Georgia. During the Korean War he was a captain in the Air Force treating patients at a base in New York State. Later he taught at Emory University Medical School for nearly 30 years and was a mentor to many medical students and young doctors.
Shmerling’s first wife, Martha Shmerling, died in 1978, and his second wife, Beverly Shmerling, died in 2004. Survivors include another son, Richard Shmerling of Atlanta; a stepdaughter, Didi Conn of Tremont, N.Y.; three stepsons, Ben Bernstein of Oakland, Calif., Andrew Bernstein of San Marino, Calif., and Richard Bernstein of Mahwah, N.J.; two sisters, Arlene Berman of Atlanta and Sylvia Pygin of California; five grandchildren and seven stepgrandchildren.
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