CUIMC mourns the passing of Dr. Richard Levine

Richard U. Levine, MD, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, passed away in a tragic bicycle accident in upstate New York on April 12, 2020. Dr. Levine has been a beloved member of the department for more than 50 years, and his untimely passing is deeply mourned.

Dr. Levine began his work with NYP/CUIMC in 1968 and spent the rest of his career there. He was widely renowned as an innovative clinician and surgeon, a beloved colleague and mentor, and an empathic and insightful practitioner.

Throughout his career, Dr. Levine identified numerous important new breakthroughs and provided mentorship to talent within the department. He was a pioneer in minimally invasive gynecologic surgery, leading to better outcomes for patients with a wide array of diagnoses. He also helped train generations of accomplished physicians, who will carry on his legacy in their thoughtful, caring treatment of patients.

Dr. Levine held a variety of administrative roles at CUIMC and NYP, in which his focus was always on improving the clinical care experienced by our patients. His influence was felt far beyond his own discipline in his service as president of CUIMC’s faculty practice organization, ColumbiaDoctors, from 2005 until 2011.

In his later career, Dr. Levine also served as an ambassador for the department. As Vice Chair of Development for the department over the past eight years, he raised six endowed professorships that provided transformational support to our faculty and programs. Joined by his wife, Ellen, Dr. Levine was relentless in his efforts to support the department's fundamental mission to advance women's health in New York City and throughout the country. Their contributions to our department, including the creation of chairs in both of their names, will live on indefinitely.

In the last weeks of his life during the Covid-19 pandemic, Dr. Levine diligently organized donations of personal protective equipment (PPE) from former patients and created uplifting moments for our department on the front lines of care.

We offer our deepest condolences to his family.