2014

Aaron Kreisler

Aaron Kreisler was born in Galveston in 1941, describing his childhood as if he were growing up in Europe. His mother had arrived from Poland only a few years earlier, brought over through her sister who already lived in Galveston, while his father, born in Poland and coming by way of Vienna, was helped to Galveston by his brother. His parents did not know each other beforehand, and Aaron believed his aunt helped arrange the marriage. Most of his mother's family perished in the concentration camps, and though she was fluent in five or six languages, she refused to speak them in front of her children out of fear that they would stand out. His father owned a grocery store and died before Aaron turned ten, leaving his mother a widow who ran the store briefly before working as a clerk. One of his father's sisters, blond and fluent in German, survived by passing through Nazi-occupied territory to Italy and then Palestine, where she reportedly fought in the pre-Israel underground.

Aaron attended Ball High School in Galveston, one of only a handful of Jewish students in his class, and began working at fourteen in a grocery chain because his family was poor. He attended college for about three years without graduating, then passed the medical school entrance exam and was admitted to a medical school in Galveston, completing his degree thanks to scholarships and a Jewish philanthropic organization. He pursued an internship, residency, and subspecialty training, combining pediatrics with the new field of neonatology and taking part in early studies of glucose in newborns. He trained at Case Western Reserve, then a center of the anti-Vietnam movement, where Dr. Spock was among his teachers. Under the Berry Plan, he served as an Army physician stateside at Fort Gordon in Georgia and at Fort Riley, caring for infantry returning from Vietnam. He held mixed feelings about the war, wanting to serve the country that had welcomed his parents while worrying about the conflict.

Aaron met his wife, Aileen, in Cleveland, and their ketubah specified that if they could not agree on where to settle, they would return to Dallas, where it was signed. They came to Dallas in 1971, where he practiced as a pediatrician and worked to advance neonatology. Over his career he established a public health clinic in Mesquite and helped organize clinics for underserved children, work recognized by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Describing himself as a bit of a street fighter in an inbred community, he became active in Jewish community life, helping start the local kosher certification body and an adult Jewish education program. He recalled vividly the day President Kennedy was assassinated. Aaron and Aileen have four children and eleven grandchildren, and he counts his family as his proudest accomplishment and his happiest memories.

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