Necrology

David Philip Gorman '57

Apr. 24, 1936-Aug. 12, 2007

David Philip Gorman ’57, an innovative obstetrician and gynecologist who devotedly continued a family tradition of medical service in New York’s North Country, was born on April 24, 1936, in Syracuse, NY. The son of Philip W. and Caroline Macartney Gorman, he grew up in Fort Covington, bordering on Canada and where his father and maternal grandfather had practiced medicine. He entered Hamilton in 1953 from Fort Covington High School, intent upon preparations for a future career as a medical practitioner, and joined Tau Kappa Epsilon. After “an inauspicious academic beginning” and a senior year of “all work and no play,” according to The Hamiltonian, he earned his diploma on schedule in 1957. In the interim he had found time to play varsity hockey (he had been a member of his high school’s state championship team) as well as run cross-country and play some lacrosse.

Accepted into medical school at McGill University, Dave Gorman crossed the Canadian border to Montréal, where he acquired his M.D. degree in 1961. He completed his internship and residency in obstetrics and gynecology at Germantown Hospital in Philadelphia, PA, and returned to the North Country in 1965 to engage in a medical practice that he maintained for 42 years until his death. Residing in Malone, he became chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Alice Hyde Memorial Hospital. He retained that position for 20 years until 1987, when he was temporarily sidelined by a heart attack.

After several coronary angioplasties, Dr. Gorman resumed his practice and served as chief of staff at what is now Alice Hyde Medical Center. He was its chief of surgery at the time of his death. Highly skilled, he performed oncologic and vaginal reconstruction surgery, and became the first physician to do advanced laparoscopic surgery as well as the first gynecologist to do laser surgery in Northern New York. In the operating room, his adherence to the practice of minimally invasive surgery was constant.

Familiarly known to his patients as “Doc,” Dave Gorman, like his father and grandfather before him, also served the medical needs of the Mohawk Indians on the nearby St. Regis Reservation. Until his heart attack in 1987, he provided for their care at the reservation’s small health clinic, and once even assisted in a home delivery on a kitchen table by the light of a kerosene lamp. His former close companion was Lorraine Montour, a Native American rights activist, and he too became an ardent proponent of that cause, as well as of women’s rights.

Outside of his profession, Dr. Gorman warmly embraced an impressively wide range of sports activities, excelling in numerous competitive events. Through the years he had won national championships in no fewer than four unrelated sports: skeet shooting, field trials (with bird dogs), hydro­plane racing, and sailboat racing. He was also an enthusiastic down­hill skier, as well as a hunter, fly fisherman, and scuba diver, and enjoyed flying model airplanes.

David P. Gorman, who is remembered as “a lifelong learner with a fantastic sense of humor, who demonstrated a great passion for life,” died on August 12, 2007, while hospitalized in New York City. He is survived by his wife, Dr. Judy Murphy-Gorman, and two daughters, Denise Lamitie and Valerie Dalton, and an adopted son, Philip Gorman, all from his first marriage when in medical school to Helen Brockway, which had ended after 18 years in divorce. Also surviving are stepchildren, grandchildren, and three sisters.

Necrology Home