Gary Greenberg, M.D., MPH, HS’84, former faculty member with the Department of Community and Family Medicine, passed away last month after a battle with cancer. Greenberg joined Duke as an occupational medicine resident in the early 1980s and remained on faculty, serving in the divisions of occupational and environmental medicine, family medicine, and primary care internal medicine until 2005.
Greenberg served as the division chief of occupational medicine from 1996 to 1998 and established the first online Occupational Medicine Electronic International Mail List in 1993. The mail list has more than 4,000 members, representing 75 countries, who use the list as a professional sounding board for current issues in occupational health and novel sentinel events. For this activity and his service to the American College of Occupational Medicine (ACOEM) he received ACOEM’s 2000 Health Achievement Award that recognizes an ACOEM member for a unique achievement in the field.
In his clinical role with the Division of Family Medicine, he received the Most Outstanding Teacher award twice in 1999 and 2002. He was also an instructor in the medical student Practice Course, a weekly half-day course in interviewing and physical examination.
After leaving Duke, he cared for the medically underserved in Wake County for the last 10 years as the medical director of the Urban Ministries Open Door Clinic. In recognition of this work, he was awarded the 2018 Triangle Business Health Care Hero Lifetime Achievement Award. The Open Door Clinic will be renamed in his honor.
“Dr. Greenberg will be remembered by all of those he touched over the years as one of the most intelligent, inquisitive, creative, committed, and caring of Duke physicians," says Dennis Darcey, M.D., MPH, MPSH, Division Chief, Duke Occupational and Environmental Medicine. "Those of us who were fortunate enough to work with Gary know the lasting impact he had on a generation of learners including medical students, residents and faculty. We will all miss his energy and infectious spirit and extend our deepest sympathies to Dr. Greenberg’s family and friends."