Dr. Arthur L. Herbst

Dr. Arthur L Herbst passed away peacefully at home on June 16, 2023.

Arthur was born to Jerome and Blanche (Vatz) Herbst in New York City in 1931. When he was two years old his family moved to Pittsburgh where he spent his youth. He was a strong student from the start and enjoyed playing sports. Later in life, he would tell the tale of how he got sent to the principal’s office for talking too much to his friends during class. This story always amused his children for their father was never one to be particularly chatty. In any case, he excelled in school which led him to Harvard for college, medical school and residency. At college he rowed light-weight crew and studied physics. While fulfilling his active-duty service requirement in the Navy as a line officer, he reconsidered his life path and shifted from law to medicine.  In medical school he won the Borden Research Award for work in endocrinology.

He started out in practice as an attending physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital. Always listening carefully to his patients, he noticed that a few young women who had a rare cervical cancer had mothers who had taken the drug diethylstilbesterol (DES) during pregnancy to help prevent miscarriage. This led to his research that yielded a seminal study in medicine for alerting doctors and patients to the potential health risks of prenatal exposure to drugs. He received the Francis Stone Burns Award from the American Cancer Society for this research.

In 1976, at age 45, Arthur became Chairman of the Department of OB/Gyn at the University of Chicago. Over the next 24 years he served on multiple medical boards, published over 180 articles and gave lectures around the world. Arthur was known to be intelligent, disciplined, hard-working, full of integrity and unfailingly reliable in all aspects of his life.  He could be counted upon to provide calm and helpful counsel. He took every call and always did his best to support anyone who needed medical care whether it was a patient, a family member or a friend-of-a-friend.

Arthur met and married Lee Ginsburg during his third year of medical school in 1958 and they had two children, Elizabeth and Arthur. His family was always important to him, but the daily demands of his work limited his availability for his children. As a result, he truly cherished the time spent with his grandchildren in retirement.

He loved to learn, achieve and compete. He was active playing tennis until he was 88, took Spanish lessons in his 70’s and swimming lessons in his 80’s. In retirement, he and Lee split their time between Chicago and Tucson, Arizona. He worked to support the University of Arizona by serving as Chair of the Visiting Committee of the Department of Science, leveraging his experience as a clinician, scientist and administrator. Having always felt grateful for the scholarships that enabled him to attend college and medical school, Arthur and Lee established scholarship funds at Harvard, the University of Chicago and the University of Arizona.

Arthur is survived by Lee Ginsburg Herbst, his wife of 64 years; his daughter, Elizabeth Herbst-Brady (Chris); his son, Arthur L. Herbst, Jr. (Nicole); and four grandchildren: Marina, Paula, Maggie and Patrick.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you give someone you love a hug.

A private family service will be held.