Sholem Kay

Sholem Kay

Sholem was born on April 23rd, 1917 in Bellville.  Sholem's father was Abraham David Katz (Kay) and his mother was Lily Karabelnik.  His paternal grandparents were Simon  (Shaya) Katz and Raiza Satz. He had two brothers and a sister, named Reuben, Arthur and Becky.  He was the second oldest of the four children.  He died at the age of 75 on July 3rd, 1992.  He was buried at the West Park Cemetery.

• Death Notes

  Plot TT1742

• General Notes

  Sholem Kay was born on 23 April 1917 in Bellville. He received his schooling at S.A.C.S. and his medical training at the University of Cape Town, graduating in 1939. He specialised at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in 1955.
  
  During WW II he served as a Regimental Medical Officer in the Middle East from August 1941 until November 1943. Upon his return to SA he was appointed to the staff of the 1 Military Hospital, which was then Roberts Heights, and started his surgical career.
  
  In 1946 he joined the staff of the Johannesburg Hospital as a surgical registrar. In 1948 he became a lecturer in Surgery and later head of a unit at Baragwanath Hospital. He entered private practice in Johannesburg in 1956, but always retained a very significant association with the Department of Surgery of Wits Medical School. He was a surgical mentor to innumerable surgical graduates of Wits.
  
  He is widely regarded as the father of head and neck cancer surgery in Johannesburg and many general surgical registrars and later otolaryngology registrars had the pleasure of gaining insight into these conditions from his vast experience.
  
  Mr Kay started the head and neck oncology clinic at the old Johannesburg General Hospital, and continued to chair this clinic for many years, later also at the Hillbrow Hospital. He firmly established the concept of multidisciplinary involvement. He will be remembered by many for his exceptional memory of the case history of virtually every patient who attended this clinic, as well as his compassion for them.
  
  When the steering committee of the South African Society of Head and Neck Oncology came about in 1983, he was the first chairman and became the first Chairman of the Society when it was formed in 1984 at the annual meeting of the South African Society of Otorhinolaryngology at the Sandton Sun Hotel, Sandton. He also became the first President of this society.
  
  

Details of Sholem's family with Minna Goodwill Holmes