Obituary of Adele Polan

ADELE KARP POLAN Adele Karp Polan, 94, cherished wife of the late Isadore Polan, beloved mother of Judith and Steven, loving mother-in-law of Michael Schonbach and Elizabeth Roistacher, and proud grandmother of Theodore Polan, died peacefully on October 24, 2011 at The Overlook at Northampton, Massachusetts. She was the treasured sister of Joseph Karp, Doris Skol, Dorothy Kripke, and Lillian Weiss, and is survived by many loving nieces and nephews, as well as her devoted companion of over a decade, Marge Cootware. Born in Brooklyn to Russian immigrant parents, she was a resident of Delmar, NY for nearly 60 years. Adele was a champion of social justice and an early pioneer of women's rights, working as a biostatistician for the New York State Health Department from 1941 through 1996 (and until 1999 as a full time volunteer), and serving on the Women's Issues Committee at her synagogue, Temple Israel of Albany, NY. She received her BA cum laude from Brooklyn College, a Masters Degree in statistics from Columbia University, and attended the Yale School of Public Health. In her first job, at the 1940 US Census, she was mentored by legendary statistician W.E.Deming, who gave her the highest of commendations. She authored or co-authored more than 30 published epidemiological papers, including studies of then-new Salk polio vaccine (its success was one of the great joys of her life), fluoridation of water, the viral causes of Hodgkin's disease, and environmental effects on birth defects and the general health of newborns. Upon her retirement, Governor Mario Cuomo called her "an exemplary public servant" and "biostatistician extraordinaire". The late Health Commissioner Dr. David Axelrod enshrined her in the Hall of Fame of Women in Public Health. With her impish smile, compassionate nature, generous spirit and wit, Adele endeared herself to all who knew her. A lover of language and culture, she traveled to Eastern and Western Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Alaska. She was an active member of Temple Israel, Hadassah and Na'amat, and a fervent supporter of the State of Israel. In lieu of flowers, please consider memorial donations to the Jewish National Fund's Tree Planting Center, the Isser Education Fund of Temple Israel, Bethlehem (NY) Public Library, or the Alzheimer's Association . Services were held at Temple Israel in Albany, NY on Thursday October 27, 2011 at 11:30AM. Interment follwed in the Temple Israel Cemetery in Guilderland, New York