Dr. Louis E. Grenzer Sr.
Baltimore cardiologist and author of study guide for medical students
Dr. Louis E. Grenzer Sr., a retired Baltimore cardiologist who wrote a study and review guide for the cardiology board exam and was an accomplished banjo player and videographer, died of cardiac arrest Jan. 3 at the University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center in Towson. He was 81.
“Louis Grenzer was a very, very bright, intelligent and knowledgeable and good physician,” said Dr. Richard D. Biggs, a retired cardiologist and friend of more than 50 years.
“I can attest to that because he was also my physician. He cared about his patients and their welfare and health. I revered him as a doctor,” Dr. Biggs said. “And an awful lot of people feel as I do. He was a good example of a doc who cared and was an advocate for his patients. If he felt they were being treated unfairly, he went to bat for them.”
Linda Baier was both a neighbor and a patient for years.
“No one can compare to Louis Grenzer. When I broke my leg and couldn’t get to the laboratory to give blood samples, he came and took them,” Mrs. Baier said. “He was a master with a stethoscope when it came to diagnosing a problem. Most docs say, ‘Take a deep breath and slowly exhale,’ but he’d listen for five minutes. He was so good as a diagnostician.”
Louis Eberhardt Grenzer, son of Dr. William Grenzer, a general practitioner, and Anna Grenzer, who administered her husband’s office and was a member of the Mercy Hospital Auxiliary, was born in Baltimore and raised initially on East 33rd Street. He later moved with his family to Tivoli Avenue near Clifton Park.
After graduating from Baltimore City College in 1958, Dr. Grenzer earned a bachelor’s degree in chemistry in 1962 from Duke University and his medical degree from the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Dr. Grenzer completed an internship and residency at what is now Mercy Medical Center in Baltimore, which was followed by a fellowship in cardiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.
Dr. Grenzer went into private practice in 1971 at 11 E. Chase St. before moving to the Horizon House on North Calvert Street and then to the professional building at Mercy Medical Center.
He also maintained a private practice at Greater Baltimore Medical Center and Good Samaritan Hospital, now known as MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, and moved his office to Philadelphia Road in Rosedale, where he continued seeing patients until retiring at the end of 2021.
When Mrs. Baier was experiencing a health issue, it was Dr. Grenzer who accompanied her to the hospital.
“I needed an X-ray and he sat and waited with me because he wanted to look at the information himself,” she said. “And I recall when we left the hospital at midnight, he was eating a candy bar. That was his dinner.”
Dr. Michael Plott, a retired cardiologist, first met Dr. Grenzer when both were cardiology fellows at Maryland in 1970. “He was a physician who showed respect and compassion for his patients,” Dr. Plott said. “He had a superior intelligence, which he brought to his care for his patients.
“Lou was very friendly and easy to talk to and work with. We each had our own practice, but we often discussed cases of mutual interest and on holidays and weekends we’d cover for one another.”
“A very important aspect of my husband’s medical practice was his patient advocacy,” Mrs. Grenzer wrote in an email. “He firmly believed that every patient deserved the best effort(s) that medical science could provide.”
In addition to his professional career, Dr. Grenzer wrote a study and review guide for the cardiology board examinations.
Fascinated by computers, he developed a computer billing program.
“He built and developed the program with the Apple Computer in 1978 for his practice and physicians,” said Mrs. Grenzer, a retired registered nurse, who had worked for Baltimore County public schools. “He just gave the program away to friends.”
Dr. Grenzer met his future wife, the former Jeanne Abbott, when she was a nursing student at the old Mercy Hospital School of Nursing.
“I met him his junior year in medical school as part of our curriculum as our group was assigned to an autopsy and that’s when I first set eyes on him,” Mrs. Grenzer said. “He graduated and I graduated and then he was working a 24-hour-on and a 25-hour-off rotation in the emergency room and that’s when we started dating.”
The couple married in 1969, and later settled in Cockeysville, where they resided for the last 36 years.
Dr. Grenzer enjoyed coaching youth basketball and softball and was an active member of the Towson Chess Club. He also was an accomplished banjo player.
One of his major pastimes was videography.
“He took videos of his kids’ and grandkids’ softball games as well as other family activities,” his wife said.
A service for Dr. Grenzer was held Jan. 14 at the Delta Marriott Hotel in Hunt Valley.
In addition to his wife of 54 years, Dr. Grenzer is survived by two sons, Louis E. Grenzer Jr. of Monkton and Andrew Grenzer of Catonsville; four daughters, Amy Bachran of Phoenix in Baltimore County, Claire McGuiness of Sparks, Jill Crowley of Freeland and Ellen Laber of Ventura, California; a brother, William Grenzer of Woodstock; a sister, Joan Grenzer of Pikesville; and 16 grandchildren.