Ellwood City doctor was 101
Milton L. Caplan, a much-admired family doctor who with his brother, Aaron, treated several generations of Ellwood City families, died Tuesday at the age of 101 in West Palm Beach, Fla.
He had moved to Florida after retiring in 2003 at the age of 88.
Born May 10, 1915, in Ellwood City, he graduated from Lincoln High School as salutatorian in 1932. He attended Geneva College for two years, then graduated from the University of Pittsburgh Medical School with both bachelor’s and medical degrees.
In the Army from 1940 to 1946, he served first as a battalion surgeon in Iceland for three years and in Europe after D-Day. He left active duty as a captain and was promoted to major in the Officers’ Reserve Corps.
Dr. Caplan for 56 years shared a practice with his brother and delivered more than 3,000 babies.
Although he had said obstetrics was the favorite part of his practice, he did it all, from house calls to stitching up teenage athletes.
“I can still remember their offices on Park Avenue, going there as a child on Saturday mornings,” recalled Ellwood City Mayor Anthony Court, 59. “The Caplans were my family doctor growing up, both Aaron and Milton, tremendous individuals … I can’t say enough about them both.”
Mr. Court said that after injuring himself playing basketball at about the age of 15, he got 29 stitches at the doctors’ office. “They did such a good job, there’s only a slight scar now.”
In 1990, the Ellwood City Chamber of Commerce named Dr. Caplan its outstanding citizen of the year. When he turned 100 in May 2015, the mayor proclaimed it Dr. Milton L. Caplan Day. “I was so proud to do that for him,” he said.
Mayor for nine years, Mr. Court pointed out that a stretch of road — state Route 288/Route 65, which leads into Ellwood City — was named the Dr. Aaron and Milton L. Caplan Highway. Aaron Caplan died in 1999 at the age of 89.
“They were icons in our community. They did so much,” Mr. Court said. “They were in our community for 61 years. When you look back in the days when they were here, it was a special time in our community.”
Longtime Ellwood City resident James Hockenberry, 74, remembered that patients often saw both brothers over time.
“Their manner was exactly alike,” Mr. Hockenberry said. “They were the old-fashioned family doctor, with warm personalities. They were very caring physicians. … You were very comfortable with them. Dr. Milton and Dr. Aaron, they were together a team.”
Milton Caplan, he recalled, promoted the construction of a new building on Pershing Street for the Ellwood City Hospital. The building opened in 1974, replacing a 1911 building that had housed it. The hospital just this week was purchased by the Florida-based company Americore Health.
Dr. Caplan was on the board of the hospital, and during the 1960s and ’ 70s he was instrumental in bringing in updated equipment and high standards of practice, Mr. Hockenberry said.
Mr. Hockenberry, a board member and past president of the Ellwood City Area Historical Society, said the historical society at 310 Fifth St. has some items from Dr. Caplan’s medical kit on display — including his stethoscope, an ear scope and a large syringe.
Dr. Caplan was a member of the Tree of Life Synagogue and B’nai B’rith, and of the Lawrence County and Pennsylvania medical societies and the American Medical Association.
In addition to his brother, he was preceded in death by his wife, Dorothy Smith Caplan; two sons, Mark Jeffrey Caplan and Ronald Jay Caplan; and a sister, Bertha Feldman. He is survived by a granddaughter, Elana Beth Caplan of Philadelphia, and several nieces and nephews.
Visitation is from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday in the Turner Funeral Home, 500 Sixth St., Ellwood City. A graveside service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at Beth Shalom Cemetery in Shaler.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Mark Caplan Youth Fund at the Siegel Jewish Community Center, 101 Garden of Eden Road, Wilmington, DE 19803; the Dorothy Caplan Scholarship Fund at the Third Street Music School Settlement, 235 E. 11th St., New York, NY 10003; or the Crohn’s & Colitis Foundation, 733 Third Ave., Suite 510, New York, NY 10017.