Harold Haft, neurosurgeon and decorated hospital administrator, dies at 94

Harold Haft, 94, of Haverford, a neurosurgeon and decorated hospital administrator, died Tuesday, Jan. 19, of lymphoma at the Quadrangle retirement community in Haverford.

Born in New York, Dr. Haft was a surgeon, teacher, and administrator in Delaware County and Philadelphia for more than 50 years. Starting in 1966 at Delaware County Memorial Hospital in Drexel Hill, he was a surgeon; president of the hospital’s medical staff; originator of the ethics, and risk management committees; and chair of the operating room committee. Earlier, he had been a neurosurgeon at hospitals from Lancaster to Cherry Hill.

He closed his private practice in 1989 to serve as Delaware County Memorial’s vice president of medical affairs until his retirement in 2006. “This is a logical and exciting culmination of my career in medicine,” Dr. Haft told The Inquirer in 1989.

He also had been a longtime clinical professor of neurosurgery at Thomas Jefferson University’s department of medicine. After retirement, he was a part-time volunteer physician consultant to the tumor registry in the cancer center at Delaware County Memorial until 2019. He was honored as a Doctor of Distinction by the hospital in 2012.

“His presence could be awe-inspiring,” said his daughter, Adele Haft. “My friends were often in awe of him.”

Dr. Haft was born to immigrant parents on Aug. 14, 1926. He graduated from the State University of New York Downstate Medical School, went to graduate school at the University of Minnesota, interned at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, and served a neurosurgical residency at the Veterans Affairs Neurological Institute in the Bronx.

Dr. Haft spent two years as a radio technician in the Navy after high school. He later met Virginia Gilles, a musician and poet, on a blind date. After her death in 2008, he told The Inquirer: “She was Catholic. I was Jewish. She was a Republican. I was a Democrat. She was a musician, and I was a scientist. But I wasn’t going to let her get away.”

They married in 1950. Both worked part-time jobs, and he used the GI Bill to get through medical school. Their daughter was born in 1952, and a son, Bruce, in 1956. They lived in New York for a few years before moving to Penn Valley in 1961 and then Wynnewood, where they resided for 48 years.

Dr. Haft moved to the Quadrangle in 2008. He was active in discussions on current events, science, and medicine, and he liked to act, sing, and socialize with others.

Dr. Haft played tennis for 50 years. He liked classical music and sang at Carnegie Hall in 1956 with the Columbia University Chorus. He traveled with his daughter, son-in-law Jordan Zinovich, and others to, among other places, France, Britain, Belgium, Holland, Denmark, Sweden, Israel, and Canada. Classmates nicknamed him “Hap” as a youngster because he always seemed so happy.

He liked to read, followed the Phillies and New York Yankees, and delighted in eating coffee ice cream, kettle potato chips, cashews, and chocolate pudding. He wrote his own obituary, and concluded it with the hope he could be a classical music composer or historian in his next life. He donated his body to science.

“He was nonjudgmental as a father,” his daughter said. “He was a serious person, but he had a great sense of humor. He was so much fun to be with.”

In addition to his children, Dr. Haft is survived by a grandson, a brother, and other relatives.

Services are to be held later.

Donations in his name may be made to the Delaware County Memorial Hospital Medical Staff Fund held at the Foundation for Delaware County, Suite 304, 200 E. State St., Media, Pa. 19063.