URMC Professor passes away
The UR Medical Center mourns the death of Associate Professor of Psychiatry Susan Horwitz, a master teacher and clinician of family therapy and advocate for families. Horwitz, a faculty member since 1988 who studied interventions to prevent domestic violence, died Sept. 24 of brain cancer. She was 62.
‘Susan was a remarkable person, at once warm and nurturing and wonderfully assertive and self-directed,” Chair of the Department of Psychiatry Eric Caine said. ‘In our region and beyond, she was a champion for victims and families fraught with domestic violence and brave enough to swim against the tide to advocate the use of couples therapy and therapy for perpetrators when clinically indicated and safe for victims. Susan supported such approaches long before others were willing to acknowledge the often complex and convoluted nature of family violence; she devoted herself to illuminating what others would not see.”
Susan McDaniel, director of the UR Institute for the Family, said Horwitz believed in the strength of families and the ability of family members to support each other and heal their relationships. She described Horwitz as ‘the heartbeat of our training program, touching the lives of so many of us in deep professional and personal ways.”
Horwitz is survived by her husband, Richard Horwitz of Penfield, two children, Rebecca Horwitz of Rochester and Jason Horwitz of Boston, Mass., her mother, Charlotte Hillsberg of Rochester, a sister, Margie Wilkov of Dallas, Texas, two grandsons and several nieces and nephews. A funeral service was held Sept. 27 at Temple Beth El. She is buried in Mt. Hope Cemetery.
Courtesy of www.urmc.rochester.edu
