Nothing meant more to Dr. Jack Cutler than family.
Dr. Jack Cutler delivered thousands of babies during his 48-year career, but nothing meant more to him than family. The man who made fresh-squeezed orange juice for his kids anytime he saw them, passed away on Jan. 11, from prostate cancer at Hospice by the Sea in South Florida.
“My father was a rare individual,” his daughter Blayne Cutler said. “He loved his family tremendously. He always said that he wanted to give us all the things he never had.”
Dr. Cutler, 89, of Elkins Park, moved to Boca Raton, Fla., 15 years ago. He held clinical appointments and teaching posts at various local hospitals, including Abington Memorial Hospital, Einstein Medical Center, Rolling Hill Hospital, Jeanes Hospital and Allegheny University Medical Center.
Ms. Cutler told the Jewish Exponent she had a very close relationship with her father. He used to take her and her siblings to the pool, fishing and other excursions, where he would attempt to impart his quirky knowledge, she recalled.
She reminisced how he would take certain streets when going places because he always felt he knew the fastest way to get there.
According to Ms. Cutler, not only was her dad adored by his patients, co-workers, friends and family, but his presence was felt everywhere he went.
“When my parents summered in Longport, he was known on the beach and the boardwalk as the mayor of Longport — we’d be stopped often by old patients or neighbors from Philadelphia days who absolutely lit up when they saw him, thanking him for his care years and years before,” she said. “At their apartment complex in Boca Raton, he became the mayor of the pool. He could hold court like nobody else.”
She explained that although he wasn’t overtly religious, he belonged to Beth Sholom Congregation in Elkins Park and attended Yom Kippur services until he died.
During Dr. Cutler’s tenure, nurse Mary Hutt assisted him for 23 years. She said she couldn’t have asked for a better work environment and he always treated her with respect. He sent her a birthday card every year and even delivered her daughter Jillian’s baby.
“He was a wonderful person,” she said. “He cared about every patient he had. I didn’t work for the hospital — I worked for him.”
Dr. Cutler is survived by his wife of 55 years, Valerie Cutler; his sons, Andrew Cutler and Peter Cutler; his daughter, Blayne Cutler, his son-in-law, Thomas Spieker; his daughter-in-law, Lori Cutler; five grandchildren; a sister, Edith Goldman; brother-in-law, Marvin Dayno; and many nieces and nephews.
Contact: [email protected]: 215-832-0747
