Jacob N. (Jay) Shanberge, M.D., a native of Milwaukee, died of natural causes Aug. 25 in Boulder, Colo. He was 82.
He graduated from South Division High School in 1939, Marquette University in 1941 and Marquette’s School of Medicine in 1944.
After serving as a lieutenant in the army, he became a chief resident in pathology at Michael Reese Hospital in Chicago. A hemato-pathologist and coagulationist, “He had a life-long dedication to research and teaching,” said his wife, Ruth Marda Shanberge.
His research led to a National Institute of Health Fellowship in Zurich, Switzerland, early in his career, and resulted in more than 55 medical publications.
Over the years, 14 Japanese doctors came to the U.S. to work with him. Clinical professorships at Northwestern University, and the Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan, as well as the Medical College of Wisconsin enabled him to work with students in his hospital laboratories and give lectures and workshops worldwide, his wife said.
In 1979, he received the Distinguished Service Award of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists’ Commission on Continuing Education.
From 1969 to 1980 he was the director of pathology and laboratory medicine at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Milwaukee. While there, in 1974, he helped found the Great Lakes Hemophilia Foundation. In 1977 he was honored by this foundation with its highest award, the Murray Helen Award, for a discovery relating to the causes of hemophilia.
According to his wife, he was an avid football fan. He was a jazz pianist and partially funded his college and medical school education playing Dixieland jazz in Milwaukee clubs. He later became an accomplished recorder player, she said.
“He also developed one of the largest, most extensively-researched medical stamp collections in the world,” she added.
“Family always played a dominant role in his life. His international professional work and related adventures … instilled in his family a love of traveling and other cultures,” she said.
He and his wife belonged to Congregation Shalom. They moved to Boulder in 2000.
In addition to his wife, he is survived by daughters JoAnne Smith of Chicago, Janet (Robert Burke Jr.) Shanberge of Shanghai, China, and Jacqueline (Andrew) McKenna of Boulder, Colo.; son, Jonathan (Bridget Logterman) Shanberge of Redwood City, Calif.; and seven granddaughters.
The family would appreciate memorials to the Great Lakes Hemophilia Foundation, 638 N. 18th Street, Suite 108, P.O. Box 704, Milwaukee, WI 53201-0704.
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