Man Killed by Van Was Beloved UES Psychiatrist Who Spent Years at Sloan Kettering

An 85-year-old man killed by a van while crossing the street less than a block from his home on Dec. 1 was identified by police as Janusz Gregory Gorzynski, a beloved psychiatrist who spent years working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center comforting patients and their families.

Gorzynski was crossing Park Avenue at East 91st Street when he was struck by a 2019 Mercedes Sprinter van driven by a 67-year-old man who was making a left-hand turn onto Park Avenue.

EMS responded and transported the victim to NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said. The operator of the vehicle remained on the scene and there are no arrests. The investigation remains ongoing by the NYPD Highway District’s Collision Investigation Squad.

Gorzynski, who had a private psychiatric practice on the UES after retiring from Memorial Sloan Kettering, was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1940 and survived the Nazi occupation of the country with his father, Stefan, an engineer; his mother, Janina, a physician; and his older brother, Wojciech, according to dignitymemorial.com.

He also survived the post-war years, when Poland became a satellite of the Soviet Union. “These experiences set him on a lifelong mission of compassionate service to those in need, as a physician specializing in psychiatry and as a volunteer for community service organizations,” according to his obituary.

“Dr. ‘Greg’ Gorzynski was a beloved psychiatrist on the faculty of the Psychiatry Service at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in its earliest foundational years,” said former colleague William Breitbart, MD. “He worked alongside Dr. Jimmie Holland, the founding chief and then chair of the department, along with Dr. Mary Jane Massie and Dr. Lynna Lesko. May his memory be a blessing.”

In passing, he will be returning to his native Poland, the family said, with his ashes interned in a family grave in Warsaw.

Gorzynski first studied medicine at the Warsaw Medical School before arriving in the United States in 1967 at age 27 and enrolling at Baylor Medical School in Houston. He moved to New York City in 1971 and was a medical intern at Montefiore Hospital in the Bronx before going to work at Memorial Sloan Kettering on the UES, where he conducted research and published scholarly articles, as well as tending to cancer patients and their families and loved ones.

For several more decades, he remained in private practice as a psychiatrist on the Upper East Side; during his retirement he volunteered at the Monday-night hospitality program at All Souls Church on Lexington Avenue and supported several philanthropic and community organizations concerned with those in need.

He loved classical music, theater, and fine arts, kept up-to-date with scholarly publications in his field, and was well read in history and politics, according to his obituary.

A memorial service was slated for the Frank E. Campbell funeral home on Dec. 12. A Christian memorial Mass will be held in early spring at St. Thomas More Church, 65 E. 89th St..