Lawrence Krakoff, a renowned physician who specialized in hypertension and provided expert and compassionate care to the many patients he treated during a six-decade career, died peacefully at his home in New York City. He was 88.
Dr. Krakoff was born in Columbus, Ohio in 1937 to Morris and Irene Krakoff. Growing up, Dr. Krakoff was told that his father was born on July 4 in a hospital in Pennsylvania that had since burned down, destroying all medical records. It was only after Morris Krakoff’s death that the family learned he had been born in Russia and emigrated as an infant.
In 1955, Dr. Krakoff left Columbus, Ohio to matriculate at Yale College, where he thrived. A talented tenor, he was a member of the Dukesmen and the Yale Glee Club. Much later in life, Dr. Krakoff was also inducted into the Whiffenpoofs. Dr. Krakoff excelled academically at Yale; he was inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa Society and graduated Magna Cum Laude in 1959.
During college, Dr. Krakoff started dating his future wife, Roberta. She was a student at Smith when their romance began, but they first met in kindergarten in Ohio. They both loved the new life they forged on the east coast, marrying in 1960 and spending the next 65 years together, supporting each other’s careers, traveling, studying history, literature, and art, raising their two children and reveling in their role as grandparents. In addition to being an excellent and beloved clinician, Dr. Krakoff was a consummate academic. He obtained his medical degree from Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons in 1963, graduating Alpha Omega Alpha. Dr. Krakoff then joined the faculty at Mt. Sinai Hospital where he became a Professor of Medicine and later served as Chief of Medicine at Englewood Hospital in New Jersey. Dr. Krakoff published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles and received awards recognizing his work, including the Mt. Sinai Culman Family Award for Excellence in Physician Communication and the Distinguished Service Award from the American Society of Hypertension, for which he served as President.
In Dr. Krakoff’s later years, he and Roberta enjoyed a lively cultural, social and intellectual life in New York City and beyond. Dr. Krakoff co- founded the Yale Alumni Chorus, which traveled around the world, performing concerts in places as diverse as South Africa, Armenia, and China. He also sang in the University Glee Club, where he served on the board, and was a member of a smaller acapella group, the Crickets. Dr. Krakoff, Roberta, and friends and family members were regulars at the Telluride Film Festival, after which Dr. Krakoff would circulate much-sought after reviews of the films they had seen. Dr. Krakoff approached everything he did with curiosity and kindness. He was a gentle and supportive father, and a loving and involved grandfather. He managed to teach his kids to ski and play tennis with plenty of humor and no rancor and looked on with quiet pride as they followed their own paths in life. Everyone who was lucky enough to meet and spend time with Dr. Krakoff will remember him with admiration, fondness, and wonder. He was a mensch; the world is a better place for his time in it. Dr. Krakoff is survived by his wife Roberta and their children Jonathan Krakoff (Leslie Touger) and Sarah Krakoff (John Carlson), and their grandchildren Emma Krakoff (Dmitriy Kats), Ben Krakoff (Yuwei Bao), Noah Krakoff and Lucy Carlson- Krakoff. Memorial contributions in honor of Dr. Krakoff may be directed to scholarships and financial aid at Yale College.