A longtime resident of Lewisburg, WV, Dr. Charles E. “Chuck” Weinstein, 91, of Davis Stuart Road, died of complications from sepsis at Greenbrier Valley Medical Center in Fairlea, WV, on Saturday, August 5, 2017.
The family held a private memorial service at his home which was attended by the United States military honor guard. They expressed the country’s official gratitude for Chuck’s service by playing taps, folding a flag, and delivering it to his widow.
Dr. Weinstein is survived by his wife, Barbara, and three children from a prior marriage, Henry Weinstein, Steve Gold, and Debbie Sarabia of California. He also leaves behind three grandchildren, Ariella, Julianna, and Elias.
His sister, Josephine, preceded his passing.
Born in New York City, NY, on February 26, 1926, Chuck grew up in Miami Beach, FL, after his parents, Dr. Henry Weinstein (who died before Chuck graduated from high school) and Mary Boneparth Weinstein, moved to Florida. His college education at University of Florida, Gainesville, was interrupted when he was called to military service in 1944. As an Army medic during the Battle of the Bulge in January 1945, he was awarded a Purple Heart and Bronze Star for bravery in recovering, under heavy enemy fire, several severely wounded fellow soldiers even though wounded himself.
Resuming his education following his wartime service, he graduated with a B.S. from University of Florida in 1949 and received an M.S. from University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1950.
In 1954, he received his M.D. from State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn, and he began practicing radiology in New York and Rhode Island. He opened a private practice in Los Angeles, CA, in 1961, where he continued to practice until 1980, when he closed his office in California and moved it to St. Albans, VT. A year later, he and Barbara relocated to Lewisburg, where he was chief of radiology at Humana Hospital Greenbrier Valley in Fairlea. He retired from the practice of medicine in 1988 due to a diagnosis of cancer.
Chuck was very much a forward-thinking pioneer. His ground-breaking development of a process for growing botulism in a controlled environment as part of his master’s degree thesis laid the foundation for the eventual mass production of Botox. In the early 1980s, he developed a “smartcard,” a credit card with a chip that contained all of an individual’s medical records and information. His hope was that his smartcard would one day make the provision of remote medical care a reality. IBM, however, was not interested in developing the concept back then. He worked tirelessly behind the scenes to develop policies and procedures for implementation of the federal government to significantly increase the quality of medical care for prisoners across the country while ensuring that its provision would be cost-effective and efficient. He also spent a few years responding to the alarming disappearance of interest in air traffic control careers by developing curriculum for a certification program at the College of West Virginia, where he was a trustee, director of Allied Health Programs, and an adjunct professor.
Formerly, he was an American Board of Radiology Diplomat and a president of Greenbrier Valley Medical Society.
Online condolences may be made by visiting www.WallaceandWallaceFH.com.
Wallace & Wallace Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
Obituary originally published in the August 16, 2017 edition of The West Virginia Daily News.
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