Heritage Florida Jewish News - Central Florida's Independent Jewish Voice

Dr. Morton Arthur Diamond, FACC, FACP, beloved father of Dr. David and Orly Diamond of Winter Park, passed away peacefully at his home in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, on Dec. 16, 2021, aged 83.

Born in Monticello, N.Y., on June 17, 1938, to the late Paul and Ann Diamond, he was raised in the Village of Wurtsboro, population 300, where the extended Diamond family, having immigrated from Nezhin, Ukraine, resided since the purchase of the family farm by his grandfather (Solomon Diamond) on Lincoln’s birthday, Feb. 12, 1912.

He was immensely proud of his rural upbringing and formatively shaped by the closeness created by the arduous, long labors toiling on the family farm (and later commercial laundry), praying in the tiny village synagogue, and attending grade school in a three-room wooden schoolhouse built in 1782.

A full scholarship afforded Morton the opportunity to attend Cornell University, Class of 1959, where he was president of the Cornell Debate Association. With boyhood dreams of becoming a country doctor, he then went on to complete his medical degree at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in 1963.

Morton arrived in Indianapolis, Indiana, in June 1963 to begin his medical internship at Indiana University School of Medicine. Through extended family, arrangements were made on the day of his arrival to have dinner at the home of Irving and Frances Goldman. Their daughter, Louise, was assigned the task of picking up this young, handsome doctor. They were married on June 21, 1964.

On the first day of his internal medicine residency, he was drafted and subsequently commissioned as 2nd Lt., U.S. Navy Medical Corps. Following initial training at Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, he was then deployed to Vietnam. The horrors he experienced as battalion medical officer profoundly shaped him.

Upon his discharge from active duty in 1966, he returned to Indianapolis to compete his internal medicine residency, and then his two-year cardiology fellowship. While in training, he authored medical articles in two of America’s most prestigious medical journals: Circulation and Journal of Clinical Investigation.

In July 1970, the family moved permanently to South Florida, where he embarked in the private practice of cardiology (and was generally thought Broward county’s first board certified cardiologist); concurrently, he began volunteer academic teaching at University of Miami.

Morton had a storied career as a clinician, adhering to the highest ideals of humanity and compassion, while doing pioneering research in cardiac ultrasonography.

He variously served as chief of Internal Medicine, chief of Cardiology, and chief of the Medical Staff at Hollywood Memorial Hospital.

In 1994, he transitioned to full-time academia as a professor and medical director of the Physician Assistant Training Program at Nova Southeastern, where Morton continued to teach until his death. In three decades at Nova, he was a respected and popular faculty member, was awarded “Faculty Member of the Year” on several occasions, published six books, and nurtured a whole generation of clinicians.

Through his diagnosis in 2002 with stage IV Agent Orange-related non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and, in 2018, with Agent Orange-related soft tissue sarcoma, his good humor, wisdom, and generosity never faltered.

He is survived by his loving wife of 57 years, Louise Diamond; children — Regine Diamond and Michael Cardillo, Dr. David & Orly Diamond, and Michele Diamond and Cristy Boyd; and grandchildren — Yael, Shira, Ari, Sophia, Aviva, and Joseph Diamond.

He would remark that he was the “product of loving family, a small village, and a few great teachers.” He loved his country, he loved G-d, and he loved his family.