Ira Sidney Ockene

Renowned preventive cardiologist, educator, and researcher

Ira Ockene. (Courtesy photo)

Longtime Harvard resident Ira Sidney Ockene died Dec. 25.

He was born in 1941 in the Bronx, New York, to Jewish Eastern European immigrants. Ira had a joyful childhood, spending summers at Seagate in Brooklyn, riding his bike through Bronx Park, playing stoop ball, and creating explosions with his chemistry set. He attended Bronx High School of Science, the City College of New York, and Albert Einstein Medical School.

At City College Ira met his beloved wife, Judy. They married and soon had two daughters, Lauren and Kim. During the Vietnam War, Ira was the Army cardiologist at Fort Carson, Colorado, for two years, after which he and Judy headed back East to be closer to family. Following his fellowship at the Brigham with pioneering cardiologist Dr. Lew Dexter, Ira became the founding cardiologist of the cardiac catheterization lab at the newly opened UMass Medical Center in Worcester in 1975. Ira ran the “cath lab” for many years until shifting to preventive cardiology.

Ira deeply valued the connections he formed with people whose lives were often different from his, including his patients. He never spoke ill of anyone, except possibly other drivers, at whom he occasionally shouted, “Turkey!”

Ira believed in the dignity of all living things; he and Judy gladly became vegetarians when Lauren and Kim did so as young teenagers.

Throughout his 50 years as a clinician and researcher, Ira published hundreds of papers on prevention, many in collaboration with Judy. They co-taught a medical school course on communication with patients, and edited a book together on preventive cardiology. Ira believed deeply in research and clinical work that would benefit marginalized communities. He co-led a diabetes prevention project supporting low-income people in Lawrence, and spent a summer working on the Zuni Indian reservation. In 1985 he was proud to serve as an expert witness in the tobacco litigation against Philip Morris.

At age 81, Ira stopped seeing patients and became a professor emeritus. An educator and a sharer of stories to his core, Ira never stopped teaching others.

When Ira was in his early 50s, he and Judy adopted their son Daniel, about which the Harvard Post published an article in April 1997.

Ira was a loving person whose answer to any request was “no problem.” He once sat for hours with a woman experiencing chest pain on a flight he was on, monitoring her pulse and helping her stay calm.

The Ockenes lived on Partridge Hill Road for 45 years, and moved to Fairbank Street in 2020. Ira loved to ride his bike through town, canoe and skate with the kids on the pond, shovel snow, make weekly pilgrimages to “the dump,” and above all, walk in the woods. Behind Partridge Hill he cross-country skied with Judy and the kids, followed fisher tracks in the winter, and built a trail with Lauren and her husband, David. Later, he walked with his dog Roscoe on the Small Nature Trail and dutifully liberated big oaks from poison ivy vines with his hand pruner. In recent years, Ira loved walking in the Harvard Fourth of July parade with the veterans’ group.

Ira spent many vacation days with his family in Harpswell, Maine, where he loved sailing, rowing, canoeing, biking, reading, and cooking soup for the family.

Ira leaves his wife, Judy; daughters Lauren and Kim; son Daniel; and grandchildren Mollie, Misha, Sonia, and Ezra; his brother, David, and his dog, Roscoe. He was predeceased by his brother Arnie. He also leaves behind his children’s spouses, David, Andrew, and Cassidy, and an extensive network of people he touched, befriended, learned from, taught, and loved. His death deeply affects all who knew him, and he will be sorely missed.

Please login or register to post comments.
Latest Features

CLICK AN AD!

Harvard Press Classified Ads Kitchen Outfitters Harvard Custom Woodworking Mill Road Tire & Auto Westward Orchards Jenn Gavin, Realtor Flagg Tree Service Jasonics Security Shepherd Veterinary Clinic Sarah Cameron Real Estate Haschig Homes Central Ave Auto Repair Shannon Boeckelman Dinner at Deadline Lisa Aciukewicz Photography Blinn Carpentry & Design Erin McBee, Attorney Great Road Farm and Garden Harvard General Store Rollstone Bank & Trust Doe Orchards Harvard Outdoor Power Equipment Karen Shea, Realtor Jo Karen Mike Moran Painting Colonial Spirits Badger Funeral Home Inspired Design Warren Design Build Chestnut Tree & Landscape