Dr. Paul Goldstein

Dr. Paul Goldstein, longtime pediatrician in New Haven, passed away peacefully on Aug 24, 2021 at age 96. Throughout his 50-year career as attending physician at Yale-New Haven Hospital and Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at Yale, and Chairman of Ambulatory Services and Community Medicine at St Raphael’s Hospital, Dr. Goldstein touched the lives of thousands of patients and families and shaped the development of primary care and emergency medicine in Connecticut.

He was born to Rose and Irving Goldstein in Providence RI on Jan. 31, 1925. He graduated from Brown University and earned his MD degree at Yale School of Medicine in 1949. Following his Yale residency, he served in the Armed Forces Medical Corps in Japan during the Korean War. He returned to Connecticut in 1954 to join Dr. Morris Krosnick with whom he worked in private practice while running the Yale Pediatric Allergy Clinic. There, he initiated the Pediatric Endocrine Clinic with a special focus on diabetes.

In 1962, Drs. Goldstein and Krosnick launched the first group pediatric practice in CT, Pediatrics Associates of New Haven. They developed the concept that each pediatrician, aside from being a generalist, would have one or more special interest areas covering all pediatric fields. This practice became the role model for many practices around the country.

Pediatric Associates served as a training site for the first pediatric nurse practitioner (PNP), and Dr. Goldstein served as President of the National Board of PNP’s in 1979-1981. Later, he served on numerous national pediatric paraprofessional boards and the National Task Force on Pediatric Education. In 1976, he was appointed Chair of the Department of Ambulatory Services and Community

Medicine at Saint Raphael’s Hospital. He was also one of main contributors to establish the Emergency Medical Services System, including EMTs and paramedics in Greater New Haven.

Dr. Goldstein was a dedicated educator and mentor to many. He was married for 72 years to Betty Moore on whom he doted until her death in 2019. When people talk about who he was and what he meant to them, they think of words like empathy, joy, loving, humble, engaged in the world (politics, sports) and, most importantly, engaged with others around him. He will be greatly missed by his 3 children (Lynn, Jill and Larry), their spouses (David Tauben, Phillip Freeman, and Diane Pappas) and his grandchildren (Sonya and Eliana Freeman, and Daniel and Julia Tauben) and by multiple generations of New Haven families for whom he cared. The family thanks the entire staff of the Whitney Center and Caroline Abbey, his recent caregiver, for their outstanding and loving care.

A private family service and burial were held on August 26th at Mishkan Israel Cemetery. A memorial service will be planned for 2022. Donations in his name can be made to: American Academy of Pediatrics, Friends of Children Fund. The Robert E. Shure & Son Funeral Home, New Haven is in care of arrangements.