Lawrence Abrams, retired dean and vice president at Thomas Jefferson University, professor, and health career advocate, has died at 83
He traveled the world and helped establish six colleges of nursing in China. “Allied health professionals are much in demand now,” he said in 1990, “and will continue to be in the foreseeable future.”
Lawrence Abrams, 83, of Bala Cynwyd, retired dean of Thomas Jefferson University’s College of Health Professions, former vice president for student affairs, professor of education, and innovative health career advocate, died Thursday, July 13, of Parkinson’s disease at the Hearth at Drexel retirement community.
Dr. Abrams joined Jefferson Medical College’s Department of Rehabilitation Medicine in 1965 and was instrumental in the creation and development of the school’s College of Allied Health Sciences, which later became the College of Health Professions. He helped Jefferson transform into a university in 1969, became associate dean of the College of Allied Health Sciences in 1972, and was elected dean of the college in 1979.
“His personal warmth, ability to stimulate the highest level of performance among those who work on projects with him, and his generosity are among the qualities most esteemed by his colleagues,” Thomas W. Elwood, then-executive director of what is now the Association of Schools Advancing Health Professions, said when Dr. Abrams retired in 2001.
“Whatever he did,” said Dr. Abrams’ daughter Karen Abrams Kofsky, “he did for the betterment of society and health care.”
Dr. Abrams won Jefferson’s Presidential Citation for Distinguished Service in 1983 and 1995, and his commissioned portrait has been displayed at the school since his retirement. He served alongside Elwood as president of the ASAHP from 1988 to 1990 and consulted for government and school officials in the United States, Brazil, China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Thailand about important health profession education issues.
He founded Jefferson’s Health Careers Guidance Clinic in 1968, created a national health career counseling telephone hotline in 1988, and published popular manuals about selecting a health career. In a series of advertisements that championed careers in the health profession that were published in The Inquirer and Daily News in the 1980s and ‘90s, Dr. Abrams said: “Professionals have the satisfaction of knowing that their work is a vital part of helping people secure and maintain good health.”
Dr. Abrams was a board member of local and regional health care organizations, and active with many national health and higher education projects, including several for the U.S. Departments of State; and Health, Education and Welfare, now the Department of Health and Human Services.
He received Pennsylvania State University’s 1992 Distinguished Alumni Award, was awarded a 1998 honorary doctorate of humane letters from the State University of New York, and won a 2007 Legacy of Excellence Award from the ASAHP. He also established the Fred and Sadye Abrams Award, in memory of his parents, for faculty excellence at Jefferson.
“He made a real difference” in the health career field, a former colleague said, and his “generosity, caring, and professionalism” benefitted countless students and fellow professionals.
He served for a decade on the board of the Marple Newtown School District and later as an interim board director for the Lower Merion School District. “He was serious about education, health, and careers,” his daughter said.
Lawrence Abrams was born Sept. 19, 1939, in Chester. He graduated from Chester High School and earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration at Penn State in 1961, a master’s degree in counseling psychology from Temple University in 1964, and a doctorate in higher education from Nova University, now Nova Southeastern University, in 1978.
He met Nancy Julius when they worked at an overnight camp in Oxford, and they married in 1963, had daughters Jill and Karen, and lived in Broomall and Bala Cynwyd.
Dr. Abrams made it home for dinner nearly every night. He followed the Eagles and 76ers closely and attended as many Penn State football games as he could. He doted on his daughters and later enjoyed taking his three grandsons to the movies.
He especially liked summer weekends at the Shore in Ventnor and vacations in Florida. He valued family and his 60-year marriage, and, when things got rough, always said: ”I work it out in my head.”
His daughter Jill Lapensohn said: “He parented out of love and a genuine desire for us to succeed. … My dad always had my back.”
In addition to his wife, daughters, and grandsons, Dr. Abrams is survived by a brother and other relatives. A brother died earlier.
Services were held Sunday, July 16.
Donations in his name may be made to Pennsylvania State University’s Smeal College of Business, 2583 Gateway Dr., Suite 200, State College, Pa. 16801.