Janusz Bardach 1919 - 2002

BARDACH, HARPER, ELKADI

Posted By: Marguerite (email)
Date: 10/28/2002 at 15:49:41

Dr. Janusz Bardach
July 28, 1919 - August 16, 2002
Dr. Janusz Bardach, 83, of 328 Highland Drive, died of pancreatic cancer Friday, August 16, 2002, at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics.

Memorial services will be held 3:00 p.m., Thursday, September 5, 2002, at Agudas Achim Synagogue with Rabbi Jeff Portman officiating. In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to Agudas Achim Synagogue, University of Iowa Foundation/Cancer Research, University of Iowa Department of Otolaryngology/ Cleft Palate Research or University of Iowa International Writing Program. Lensing Funeral & Cremation Service is in charge of arrangements.

Dr. Bardach was born July 28, 1919, in Odessa, Russia, the son of Mark and Ottylia Bardach. In 1920 he and his family moved to Poland. In July 1940, he was drafted into the Russian Red Army. In August 1941, he was arrested on the front line for “anti-Soviet propaganda.” He was court-martialed and sentenced to death, but the sentence was commuted to ten years hard labor in a camp in Kolyma, Siberia.

After he was released from the labor camp in 1946, he returned to Poland and received a stipend from the Polish government to study medicine in Moscow. He completed his residency in plastic and reconstructive surgery at the Moscow Medical-Stomatological Institute in 1954 and returned to Poland where he became chair of the Department of Maxillofacial Surgery at the Medical University in Lodz. He later became the head of Poland’s first Department of Plastic Surgery.

He came to Iowa City in 1972 at the invitation of the University of Iowa where he joined the faculty at the College of Medicine and became chair of the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. In 1981, he married Phyllis Harper. He wrote more than 200 scientific articles and 12 books on plastic surgery as well as numerous essays. He retired in 1991. He also wrote “Man is Wolf to Man” which chronicles his experiences in the labor camp. His second memoir, “Surviving Freedom: After the Gulag,” describes the years he lived in Moscow and attended medical school after his release from prison. It will be published by the University of California Press in 2003.

Dr. Bardach was a member of the International Society of Plastic Surgeons, the American Society of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, Midwestern Association of Plastic Surgeons, International Society of Maxillofacial Surgery, American Cleft Palate Association, Polish Society of Plastic Surgery, American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, American Medical Association, Iowa Medical Association and the Johnson County Medical Association.

He won several awards during his career including First Prize from the Ministry of Health in Poland in 1966 and 1968.

Survivors include: his wife, Phyllis Harper- Bardach of Iowa City, Iowa; his daughter, Ewa Bardach and her husband Hani Elkadi of Iowa City; his granddaughter, Nina Elkadi of Iowa City; Hani’s family, brother, Osama and mother, Doula, his brother Juliusz Bardach and his wife Wanda of Warsaw, Poland, and by Juliusz’s children, Krystyna, Mark and Michalina; his stepchildren, Freeman Harper of Iowa City, Iowa, William Harper and his wife Donna of West Des Moines, Iowa and Phyllis Finch and her husband Michael of Atlanta, Georgia.

He is survived by his sister-in-law, Pauline Cheesman of Staten Island, New York. He is also survived by several stepgrandchildren, cousins, nieces and nephews.

His parents, sister, Rachel, wife, Yelena, and infant son, Mark, preceded him in death.