Paul A. Bienstock died on March 6, 2021 at the age of 82 after complications from COVID-19. Paul graduated from PS 6 Manhattan in 1952 and from Phillips Academy (Andover, MA) in 1956. He was a member of the Harvard College Class of 1960, where he graduated with an A.B. cum laude. In 1963, he received his medical degree with honors from Cornell Medical School.
Paul was a brilliant and compassionate doctor, much loved by the patients he served in New York City for almost 50 years, and a wonderful husband and father. He was an internist with a specialty in cardiology and was engaged in active practice until November of 2019. His family remembers that Paul did homework when in kindergarten, when none was even assigned, and knew he'd be a doctor from the age of five or six. He was a dedicated doctor, on call 24/7, and was always ready to make house calls. Paul served as a physician in the Air Force before becoming Chief of the Cardiac Care Unit at Lenox Hill Hospital and opening an office in Manhattan. Judy O'Boyle, who worked with Paul for over 30 years, observed that she cannot recall a time when he didn't immediately take a call from a worried patient, or return it within a couple of hours; that there was never a harsh word or rebuke from Paul; and that there was not a single day when she was not happy to go to work in that office. Paul's longtime patient Michael Lindsay-Hogg said, "He was the best doctor I ever knew, not just for his diagnostic skills and manner, of course, but you knew he loved what he did, and the intelligence with which he treated his patients was unusual, just listening to them. And it didn't have to be about your heart. Years ago, my stepfather was having some trouble breathing. It was about 10pm. He called Dr. Bienstock. Half an hour later Paul arrived with a portable oxygen machine."
Paul left his beloved wife of 45 years, Ellen Bienstock, who subsequently, on March 19, 2021, died after complications from COVID-19; his daughter Rebecca Bienstock; his son-in- law Greg Daniels and granddaughter Lucy Bien Daniels, as well as his brother Peter Bienstock, nephews Tony and Nick Bienstock and Amos and Steven Kornfeld, plus scores of loving relatives, old friends and adoring former colleagues, staff and patients. A memorial service will be held at a later date. Donations in his memory may be made to Weill Cornell Medicine, designated for Medical Research, at give.weill.cornell.edu.
