Jay Spiegelman, 92, physician

Jay Spiegelman, 92, formerly of Elkins Park, a retired physician and allergy specialist who shared pollen count information with Philadelphia-area hay-fever sufferers, died of kidney failure Tuesday at the Manor at Oakridge in Harrisburg.

Dr. Spiegelman graduated from Germantown High School. He earned bachelor's and medical degrees from Temple University, and interned at Mount Sinai Hospital in Philadelphia. During World War II, he served in the Army Air Force in the United States and Canada.

After his discharge, he opened a family practice in Olney. He later moved his office to Jenkintown and expanded his practice to include specialties in allergies and immunology.

In 1949, while on the staff of Mount Sinai, he and a colleague began collecting pollen on sticky glass slides at sites around Philadelphia. He later collected the pollen from the roof of Einstein Medical Center when he joined the staff there. For more than 20 years, his daily pollen count was reported during ragweed season, from August to October, in The Inquirer.

Dr. Spiegelman was also on the staff of the former Rolling Hill Hospital and was an assistant professor of clinical medicine at Temple University Medical College. He was a Fellow of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia and the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, and wrote dozens of articles published in professional journals.

From 1980 to 2003, Dr. Spiegelman lived in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., where he was a physician with a primary care practice in Broward County for 15 years.

He enjoyed golf and reading about Philadelphia history and Jewish culture. Even after he stopped working, he continued to attend staff education classes at hospitals in Florida and read medical journals to keep up with his profession, his son Willard said.

In addition to his son, Dr. Spiegelman is survived by sons Richard and Robert; a sister; and four grandchildren. His wife of 64 years, Edith Bowman Spiegelman, died in 2006.

A memorial service will be at 9 a.m. tomorrow at Goldsteins' Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks, 6410 N. Broad St. Another memorial service will be at 3 p.m. Monday at the Manor at Oakridge, 4500 Oakhurst Blvd., Harrisburg.