Irene Solomon
October 8, 1932 - May 20, 2022
Dr. Irene Leider Solomon, a beloved and highlyrespected pediatrician, died peacefully at her home in San Francisco at the age of 89. Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Irene was the first child of D. William Leider and Ruth Marshak Leider, both of whom were lawyers.
Irene graduated from Brooklyn Friends School in 1950 and from Radcliffe in 1954. She then went to Harvard Medical School, graduating in 1958 (one of only a few female students at the time). In 1964 she moved with her husband and two young children to the Bay Area for a position as a pediatric resident at the University of California Medical Center. For the next three decades of her career she worked as a pediatric endocrinologist at Kaiser Permanente in Oakland.
She directed the Pediatric Residency Program at the hospital from 1978 to 1985, and was named three times House Staff Best Teacher. Her remarkable dedication in her practice to the patients she treated and the younger colleagues she trained is well known to all those who came into contact with her. The legacy she leaves behind her is that of an individual deeply committed to the ethics of medical care.
An avid collector of antiques and cookbooks, she loved to sing and play the piano and to cultivate her garden. She adored the arts and was a longtime supporter of many Bay Area arts institutions. Late in life she became a part of a closeknit community of friends at the Presidio YMCA where she went nearly every day to swim in the pool.
Deeply attached to her family, she was married to her husband Eric Solomon, a former Professor of English at San Francisco State who passed away in 2018, for 64 years. They had two children, Madeline and Bill (Molly). Irene is also
survived by her two grandchildren, Naomi (Peter) and Eliot, as well as by three great grandchildren--Lucas, Bianca, and June; as well as her younger brother William Leider who still lives with his wife Emily in San Francisco.
Memorial donations may be made to the American Civil Liberties Union.