Mort Levy

 Mort has been   elected into The Clayton  (Missouri)   High School Hall of  Fame:

Clayton Alumni Hall of Fame 

Morton A. Levy M.D. - 2020

Morton Levy began his Clayton School experience at DeMun School in the fall of 1941 and graduated as a member of the Class of 1953. He left the system his parents moved the family to University City, but returned in1946 when he entered Maryland School.

After graduation, Morton entered Washington University where he continued his academic excellence, was one of the top three sprinters on the track team, and entered a new area in which he was destined to succeed: Journalism. He rapidly climbed in stature on the Student Life newspaper staff, becoming the lead sports writer before the end of his freshman year. After winning his second annual Best Sports Story award from the prestigious University of Missouri School of Journalism, he became the Sports Editor as a sophomore.

His varied achievements led to his being chosen for the Premedical Honorary, as well as Lock and Chain (the sophomore men's honorary), and his being elected to the Liberal Arts Council by his fellow students. Morton's college career, at this point, was a harbinger of a lifetime of achieving excellence in multiple fields of endeavor.

The family moved to San Diego, and he transferred to UCLA for the fall semester of his junior year. He continued to achieve academic excellence and lettered in track, before graduating in 1957. In the fall of that year, he entered UCLA Medical School and rapidly moved into the top tier of students in his class. His family returned to St. Louis in 1959, and he transferred to the Washington University School of Medicine. He received his MD in June 1961.

Morton completed training in Internal Medicine and Hematology at Barnes and Jewish Hospitals as well as the Clinical Center of the NIH, before entering private practice in 1969. During that time (1965 - 1967) he completed his military obligation as an Epidemic Intelligence Officer in the Public Health Service. Stationed at the Harvard University School of Public Health as a Research Fellow in Epidemiology, he spent the next two years investigating childhood cancer. His work there resulted in the following: 

Demonstrated the influence of heredity in childhood leukemia (published in the New England Journal of Medicine).

Demonstrated the increased risk for the same tumor in siblings of children with each of the four major types of childhood cancer (presented at the 1967 Annual Meeting of the Epidemic Intelligence Service at the CDC in Atlanta).

These data served as a stimulus for future studies by others of Hereditary Cancer Syndromes. 

Dr. Levy is the author of a number of other papers published in peer reviewed journals such as the Transactions of the American Association of Physicians and the journal Cancer.

Morton entered private practice in 1959 and became board certified in Internal Medicine, Hematology and Oncology. He joined the faculty of Washington University, a role he continued until he retired as an emeritus Associate Professor of Medicine thirty years later. He taught hundreds of medical students, interns, residents and fellows during that time.

Morton served in numerous capacities at The Jewish Hospital of St. Louis over the next thirty years:
Director of the Hematology Division of Jewish Hospital

Director of the Hematology Laboratory in which he established the first platelet function laboratory in St. Louis, as well as the first lab able to diagnose Post Transfusion and Neonatal Purpuras leading to treatment of these often fatal diseases.

Director of the Blood Bank, Under Dr. Levy's leadership it became the first hospital based blood bank in the United Stated to test every unit of blood for Hepatitis B (Before the Red Cross had begun testing). The importance of this was noted when the International Society of Blood Transfusion selected the results of the experience for presentation at its annual meeting

Co-Director of the Lymphoma Service at the Fixman Cancer Center

In 1997 he moved to Kansas City where he established a Department of Hematology and Oncology for Kaiser-Permanente Health Plan and became its first Director.

Throughout his adult fife, Morton has involved himself in his community. When his children were young, he became an Optimist League Baseball coach. Active in the DeMun School PTA, he became its last president and led the charge to name the school after Ralph Captain, his Maryland School Phys Ed instructor and his children's beloved principal, who had passed away the summer before the new DeMun School was to open. He chaired the Board of Education and served on the Board of Trustees of United Hebrew Congregation. For ten years, he was the medical director of Camp Sabra, the Jewish Community Association's camp at the Lake of the Ozarks.

Dr. Levy also turned to volunteer activities related to his career. Morton became a founding board member and the first medical director of Community Hospice Care, the first Hospice in Missouri. He began to volunteer for the Missouri Division of the American Cancer Society in the 1970s and rose to the chairmanship of several committees. Under his leadership the Road to Recovery Program was initiated in St. Louis and Kansas City, providing transportation for cancer patients to doctors' offices and treatment centers. He was given the Wendell Scott Award for Distinguished Service for this.

Morton also guided the development of Camp Sunrise for children with cancer and the construction of the first Hope Lodge in Missouri. The latter is a residential facility where cancer patients who live a significant distance from one of the cancer centers in the city can stay while undergoing treatment.

Dr. Levy served as President of the Missouri Division of the American Cancer Society and its representative on the national House of Delegates. For all of his dedication and success over the years he was presented with the National American Cancer Society's most prestigious award, the St. George's Medal.

Since his retirement in 2007 he has devoted himself to bis favorite activities: tennis, creative writing and poker. As a snowbird he competes in a 50 Plus tennis league in Lee County Florida. His personal essays and poetry have been published in literary journals and anthologies and his memoir, It All Began with the Dragon Lady: Growing up and Coming of age in the middle of the Twentieth Century will soon be published. Morton's poetry has won prizes in Missouri and Florida and his poems and selections from his memoir have been routinely been selected by judges for presentation at the annual Writers Read on Sanibel Island as well as the Alliance for the Arts in Fort Myers. 

Morton lived in Clayton for most of his adult life and all four of his children are graduates of Clayton High School. Of all of his achievements he is most proud of being the father of these remarkable people including his son Bruce who is a member of the Hall of Fame.

Dr. Levy in recent years has returned to the school system that started him on the path to his productive life. After participating in the planning of the 60 and 65 reunions of the Class of 1953, Dr. Levy initiated the concept of regular meetings of his classmates, and along with Sam Hopmeier has involved this group in the activities of the Clayton schools and the Clayton Education Foundation.