Just keep it flowing.
The blood. The water.
No difference: they both lead to life.
The blood: the implantable cardioverter defibrillator. The water: the reservoirs in Israel.
The chief of cardiology and the chief of JNF philanthropy.
No, make that the co-chief, with his inimitable wife Toby.
This was Dr. Mort Mower, who has now left us.
And left countless numbers of people living who otherwise would not likely be living.
Left with the ultimate accolade of Proverbs, “a good name excelleth them all.”
Left us all with . . . astonishment.
Mort Mower grew up poor. His father died at a young age. His mother prepared sandwiches at a Woolworth counter. And yet, Mort Mower rose to the to top of his profession. Co-inventor of the implantable defibrillator. Teacher at major medical colleges. Then, underwriter of countless philanthropies, from addiction recovery education to his beloved JNF.
And yet, if you were asked to pick Mort Mower out of a crowd, he would be the last person you would pick.
Alongside all of his expertise and generosity, he mastered what Jewish ethicists call the most difficult character trait of all: humility.
It did not preclude dry humor. How did Mort Mower do his part to sustain his beautiful 57-year marriage with Toby? “I’m a saint,” he said.
Said Toby: “That’s not to say we don’t argue. We do.” True, Mort conceded. “But I’m always right.”
The man who did right by medicine, by philanthropy and by his wife and children, also did right by his country. He served in the US Army overseas as captain and chief of medicine in the Army medical corps in Bremerhaven, West Germany, interrupting his residency at Mount Sinai to do so.
The Mowers joined our community roughly 10 years ago. What a blessing, and not just for their caring — but for their very being. The type of being that says, “In order to keep it, you have to give it away.” The type of being that gathers under their roof the likes of a Chagall, a Monet, a Picasso, a Rembrandt — to make the world a more beautiful place.
That’s what pulls together all of the strands together in the life of Mort Mower. Not just to leave the world a better place. Which he certainly did. But to leave it a more beautiful place. A more humane place. A place of charm and humor and hard work and service — all integrated, together.
Copyright © 2022 by the Intermountain Jewish News
