Dorrie Rosenblatt was born in New York City on Feb. 8, 1948, to Philip and Freda Rosenblatt. From an early age she excelled in school. Dorrie was the valedictorian of the first graduating class of the United Nations International School in New York City and she received her diploma from U Thant. At 16, she went to Barnard College and graduated in 1968 despite frequent and prolonged illnesses. 

In 1975, Dorrie received a Ph.D. in pharmacology from Cornell University. Her longing to go to medical school was realized when she was able to attend an American medical school-sponsored program at the Catholic University in Lille, France, for two years. Dorrie completed her medical studies at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City in 1981.

She began a fellowship in geriatric medicine at Harvard in July 1984. That same month Dorrie had her first coronary bypass surgery. During the next 40 years she coped with severe heart disease. 

From an article in the New York Times Magazine Dec 15, 1985, titled, “New Focus on the Old”: “‘I was brought up to help the elderly,’ explains Dr. Dorrie Rosenblatt, a pharmacologist in her second year of a geriatrics fellowship at Harvard Medical School. ‘Elderly people are the underdogs of this society.'”

While at Harvard, Dorrie was named a Brookdale National Fellow in Geriatrics. She spent a year of this fellowship on loan to the University of California, Irvine, doing research. Dorrie completed her three-year fellowship and was appointed an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. In 1988, she was recruited to join the faculty of the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Michigan.

Over the next 10 years Dorrie spent her time doing research, teaching and providing clinical work, which was her passion. She was named by Newsweek as one of the best geriatricians in the Midwest and was inducted into the Michigan’s Women’s Hall of Fame for services to seniors. 

Dorrie had her second bypass surgery in 1995. By 1998, the severity of her heart disease forced her to retire on disability. 

Throughout her life Dorrie had a strong connection to Indian culture and she travelled often to India. After her retirement, Dorrie started one of India’s first multidisciplinary geriatric programs at the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences in Cochin. Once the program in Cochin was well-established, Dorrie turned her focus from medicine to spirituality. 

She was ordained as an interfaith minister at One Spirit Interfaith Seminary, and she did a two-year training to qualify as a spiritual counselor. In her later years, Dorrie shared that her main spiritual practice was gratitude — gratitude not only for obvious blessings but also for the challenges which became opportunities for spiritual practice.

Dorrie loved to travel, and she loved to collect art. She also loved animals — especially cats, goats and otters. Her totem was the purple rhinoceros, and she had a vast collection of rhinos. She loved plants and gardening, and her garden was a mini oasis.

Dorrie was grateful that in her later years she overcame the depression that had weighed her down earlier in life. She was happy even as she dealt with her many limiting medical problems. She found joy in simple things like cruising the neighborhood in her electric wheelchair. Dorrie shared that she felt blessed by her good friends, her therapist of 18 years and her wonderful medical team. 

Dorrie died March 24, 2025, as she had wished to, in her beloved home, with a friend and her cat close by. 

— Submitted by friends of Dorrie Rosenblatt