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