Obituary: Herbert Karp, 94

Herbert Rubin Karp, 94, native to Atlanta, passed away peacefully Friday, March 11, 2016.

The son of Sadie and Louis Karp, he graduated from Emory University School of Medicine before enjoying a successful career as a neurologist and chair of Emory’s department of neurology. In 1983, Dr. Karp became the inaugural medical director at the Wesley Woods Center, the nation’s first geriatric hospital, and went on to work as associate medical director for the Georgia Medical Care Foundation, from which he retired at the age of 90. Among his numerous achievements, Karp received the Thomas Jefferson Award, the highest honor given by Emory University to a faculty member, and the Emory department of neurology created the Herbert Karp Neuroscience Endowment to support excellence in teaching, research and clinical care for generations to come.

In addition to medicine, his great passion was music. A member of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra board of directors for many years, he also founded the chamber music series at Ahavath Achim Synagogue and was deeply involved with chamber music at Emory University. Active in the Jewish community, Dr. Karp served as president of the Ahavath Achim Synagogue, where for over three decades he sounded the shofar at High Holidays. He was very proud of his decade’s work on the board of Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters, for which he served as chair in 2005.

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Herbert is survived by his loving wife of 67 years, Hazel; his daughters, Miriam and Beth (Richard Fischer); his son, Benjamin (Margie); and grandchildren Isabella Cantor, Simon and Marlee Fischer, and Jonathan and Aaron Karp. The family expresses their deep gratitude for the loving care of Gwendolyn Brown and Patricia Thompson.

Sign the online guestbook at www.edressler.com. His funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Monday, March 14, in the Ellman Chapel of Ahavath Achim Synagogue with Rabbis Neil Sandler and Laurence Rosenthal officiating; burial will follow at Greenwood Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Friends of Music, Office of Gift Records, Emory University, 1762 Clifton Road NE, Suite 1400, MS:0970-001-8AA, Atlanta, GA 30322-4001. Arrangements by Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care, 770-451-4999.