Harlan Spitz ’61

Harlan died Feb. 29, 2024, in Greenport, N.Y. 

Born in Brooklyn, he came to us from Jamaica High School. At Princeton, he was in the Special Program in the Humanities in Philosophy, was on the sailing team freshman and sophomore years, vice chairman of Hillel, and treasurer of the Yacht Club. He took his meals at Wilson Lodge. 

After Princeton he earned a medical degree with honors at Yale. Following pediatric internship and residency, he then served as a pediatrician in the Air Force. Then, after a combined residency in adult psychiatry and a fellowship in child psychiatry, he practiced child and adult psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the Bronx Children’s Psychiatric Center for decades. For four years he spent six months of the year serving as a psychiatric consultant in Rotorua, New Zealand, dealing largely with the Maori population.

A man of many and varied avocational interests, he is survived by his daughter, Rivi Handler-Spitz, his brother Arnold, and other relatives and friends.