D

r. Ned Chalat of Grosse Pointe 
died Feb. 5, 2021, at the venera-
ble age of 95. 
As a lifelong resident of the Detroit 
area, a practicing physician and active 
leader in many civic organizations, Dr. 
Chalat had a profound impact on the 
community and his family.
His legacy includes more than 50 
years as a practicing ear, nose and 
throat physician in Downtown Detroit, 
most of which was devoted 
to residents of the inner city. 
He was also a revered clinical 
professor of otolaryngology at 
Wayne State University School 
of Medicine and was credited 
for his pioneering research on 
transplanting eardrums.
Dr. Chalat believed that 
a physician’s role extended 
beyond treating individu-
al patients. He wrote, “It has 
long been my feeling that we as physi-
cians have never sufficiently exercised 
our potential in facing society’s real 
difficulties.
”
In that regard, Dr. Chalat’s com-
mitment was unwavering. During the 
Detroit riots in 1968, he refused to 
abandon his patients and drove through 
police barriers to make rounds at 
Harper Hospital. During the AIDS cri-
sis, he trained as a Red Cross instructor 
and berated doctors who refused to treat 
those patients. And, as a member of the 
editorial board for the Detroit Medical 
News, he wrote a series of essays promot-
ing awareness about domestic violence, 
poverty and civil rights. He took every 
opportunity, in writing and in lectures, 
to prod members of his profession to 
help address those issues.
Dr. Chalat inherited his empathy for 
the underserved from his father, who 
exemplified the grit and idealism of the 
immigrants who arrived in America at 
the turn of the century. Jacob Chalat, 
a young Jewish refugee, arrived in 
Detroit in 1910 after escaping from a 
Russian prison camp. Barely out of his 

teens, Jacob graduated from Central 
High School and then enrolled at the 
University of Michigan Medical School. 
He served as a physician in the United 
States Army, 1917-1918. Upon his 
return, Jacob turned down more lucra-
tive job offers to work for the Detroit 
City Physicians Office, making house 
calls and tending to the poor.
Eventually, as Jacob’s own health dete-
riorated, his young son, Ned, accom-
panied him on house calls. As 
recently as this year, Ned Chalat 
claimed that his exposure to 
a variety of epidemics during 
those house calls made him 
immune from the coronavirus 
pandemic. “I’m a doctor; I 
should be out there helping,
” 
he told his daughter in a recent 
phone call.
”
Dr. Chalat followed his father 
into medicine, attending the 
University of Michigan for his B.S. in 
zoology, in 1945, and to the University 
of Michigan Medical School for his 
M.D. in 1948. He did his internship and 
residency in otolaryngology at Harper 
Hospital. In 1952, he took a fellowship 
at the esteemed Lempert Institute in 
New York City. In 1953, he served in 
the United States Air Force as an Air 
Force surgeon with the rank of captain 
(1953 -1955) at Parks Air Force Base in 
Livermore, Calif.
Dr. Chalat’s staunch ideals were rec-
ognized in every organization he joined, 
as evidenced by a raft of leadership 
positions over his lifetime. He served as 
president of the Wayne County Medical 
Society, chief of the Ear, Nose and 
Throat Departments at Harper and Sinai 
Hospitals, and he held leadership posi-
tions at the Michigan Otolaryngological 
Society, the Michigan Chapter of 
American Medical Writers Association, 
the Detroit Academy of Medicine, the 
Southeast Michigan Red Cross AIDS 
Education Committee and the Children’s 
Center in Detroit.
Dr. Chalat retired from his medical 

A Commitment To Serve

OBITUARIES
OF BLESSED MEMORY

Dr. Ned Chalet

JN 1/8 page

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44 | FEBRUARY 18 • 2021 

