Former staff members, patients fondly remember Dr. Albert Adler

For nearly half a century, Dr. Albert Adler worked as a pediatrician in Smithtown, most of those years in his office located downstairs from his home on Teapot Lane. After his passing on July 14, at 94, those who knew him are remembering him affectionately.

Many in the town remember visiting him as a child and getting an “A+” written on their arms from the doctor, who often wore whimsical ties with characters such as Mickey Mouse.

“When they were 18 no one actually graduated out of his practice, they would just take a temporary leave until they could bring their next generation to him,” his son Jonathan Adler said.

The son added his father was a family man.  His house and office setup allowed the doctor to go home within seconds to eat dinner with his wife and children and help his three sons with homework and school projects.

Jonathan Adler said his father was in good health until a few months ago. The pediatrician moved to Sarasota, Florida, with his wife, Joan, a few years after his retirement in December 2010. Joan died in May 2018.

The son said his father loved life and being a pediatrician. The doctor was also a fan of the Knicks, baseball and hockey. He believed strongly in education and traveled a good deal in his life.

Born in Brooklyn on Jan. 19, 1928, the pediatrician grew up in an apartment in Brownsville that included his immediate and extended family, including aunts, uncles and cousins. His parents owned a dress factory in Babylon.

Jonathan Adler said his father would tell his children, “We didn’t know whether a penny was round or square.”

Adler’s older sister ensured her brother got a good education when he was younger, according to his son. Before heading to college, Adler enlisted in the U.S. Army and served in China and Japan. After his time in the service, he took a few science classes at Brooklyn College. He wasn’t sure what he wanted to do careerwise, and a friend suggested that he become a doctor.

Adler was accepted to Duke University, but to save his family money he decided to study overseas in Switzerland. The medical school in Europe cost $50 a semester.

After he and his wife married in 1959, Adler began practicing as a pediatrician two years later in a home-and-office combination on Route 111 in Smithtown. His wife, a former teacher who left work to care for her children, helped manage his office. The doctor built the Teapot Lane house and office in 1967.

His son said his parents belonged to Temple Beth Sholom locally, and his father set up a facility for the intellectually disabled youth and their families in the Smithtown area.

Jonathan Adler remembered his father as a good diagnostician, too. 

“When other pediatricians really couldn’t figure it out, my father was able to figure out the problem,” he said.

He said when his father began practicing medicine, there weren’t as many specialty practitioners as there are now. Sometimes, Adler would have to set bones for simple fractures and even conduct plastic surgery. He was also the last doctor in the area to make house calls. His son said when the doctor first moved to Smithtown, a few families would pay him with vegetables, fruits or cow’s milk for house visits.

Jonathan Adler said one day, an employee at The Cheesecake Factory approached his father to tell him he had saved her arm. As a child, she came down with a bone infection. At the hospital, the orthopedic surgeon wanted to amputate her arm. Adler took a needle and stuck it into the bone, and pus squirted out all over the hospital room. The decision stopped the infection that nowadays could be easily treated with antibiotics, and her arm was saved.

When Adler retired in December 2010, his wife rented the Elks Lodge in Smithtown to celebrate. Jonathan Adler said thousands of people lined up in bad weather to wish his father well.

“His favorite thing to say was, ‘Look, if you love what you do for work, you never work. I feel like I’ve never really worked. I just enjoyed every second of my practice,’” the son said. 

Adler leaves behind his sons Jonathan (Andrea), Mitchell and Roger; grandchildren Andrew, Ellis, Michael, Eli, Abigail and Sawyer; and great-granddaughter Emma.

Like a family  

Former employees of Adler’s said he made them feel like family. Margaret Higgins, Maureen Rogers, Christine Figuccio and Lisa Agosta all worked with him for several years before he retired.

Agosta said during her 13 years working for him, she found him to be “a great pediatrician, and he touched so many lives with his loving care.”

She said the staff was called the “Adler girls,” and the employees had “wonderful memories with him and Mrs. Adler.”

Agosta said besides taking care of his young patients, he was there for the parents, too. He would give mothers and fathers advice and guidance, Agosta said, “with whatever they were going through — he didn’t just care about the children — he cared about the family as a whole.”

Higgins experienced this firsthand, before she worked with him as a registered nurse for more than 22 years, when he cared for her four sons. When her 18-month-old son was sick, if Adler needed to get an expert opinion, she said, “He would always go to the ends of the earth to get the right person for you.”

When her son’s intestines were about to perforate, and he needed major surgery at Smithtown General Hospital, Adler helped her find the right surgeon. She said the pediatrician made sure the surgeon knew he could call him at any time of the night. 

Rogers, who worked for him a little less than 20 years, said when her daughter-in-law’s nephew was sick, and it wasn’t known if he would survive, with Adler calling in the right people, they saved his life.

 “He never stopped looking for some way,” she said.

Figuccio also worked for the doctor for approximately 20 years until he retired.

“He was just a loving, caring man,” she said. “No other words to describe him. He really put his whole heart and soul into every child and family member, took the time needed and gave them all the attention that they would need.”

She agreed with his son that Adler was the best diagnostic doctor around. She said one day he was examining a patient when he turned and saw a lump on the mother’s neck. He advised her to get it checked. Two days later, she was having her thyroid removed due to cancer.

She remembered another patient had strep throat and all the family members kept getting it. Adler asked if they had a dog, and they brought it in after hours. The doctor did a throat culture on the pet, and it turned out the dog had strep, too.

A+ patients

Maria Talbot and her sister were patients of Dr. Adler from birth until they turned 18.

“He was such a kind and compassionate man,” Talbot said.

She always looked forward to getting a lollipop and a hug from the doctor at the end of every visit. One day he forgot, and a nurse offered Talbot a lollipop, and she began to cry. Even though he was in another exam room seeing a patient, the pediatrician came to see what the problem was, and once he discovered what happened, he gave her a big hug.

“At such a young age, I remember feeling such a sense of comfort about him,” she said. “You could tell he truly loved the children he cared for.”

Nancy Irvolino said she remembered one visit when her brother needed a shot. He began running around the room, saying to his mother, “Tell him I take pills.”

“He calmed my brother down and at the end gave him a lollipop,” she said, adding she started going to the doctor when she was 2, and at 54, he’s still the best doctor she ever had.

Joe Cusumano said as a child asthmatic, he would constantly come down with bronchitis. The doctor realized it was allergies triggering the asthma and started Cusumano on allergy shots. Since he was 15, Cusumano hasn’t had an asthma attack.

His parents took him, his sister and his brother to the doctor since they were born.

“You knew you were going to a man who cared and knew what he was doing,” he said. “I am grateful for him to this day.”

This writer was also a patient of Adler’s from the age of 9 to 20, as there were several years I needed allergy shots.

He was the first person who said I looked like a celebrity. He would always call me a young Katharine Hepburn. When I first met him in 1977, I was familiar with who the actress was, but only knew what she looked like as an older woman. So, I was a bit taken aback. One day I saw the movie “Stage Door” where a young Hepburn starred with Ginger Rogers and Lucille Ball. I realized I didn’t mind looking like Hepburn, and every time I see a movie with her, I remember the doctor who made a skinny, awkward girl feel like a movie star.