Richard R. Carruthers

Richard Carruthers, age 86, passed away on Saturday, Jan. 14, 2023 at Saratoga Hospital in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.  Born in Beaumont, Texas, to Robert L. Carruthers Sr. and Elizabeth Rice Carruthers, he moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma with his mother after his parents divorced. A proud graduate of Tulsa Central High School (Class of 19 54) and Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, he was granted a full scholarship to Case Western Reserve Medical School. Residency training included two years of internal medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He served two years of active US Army service as a medical officer prior to three years of Neurology residency at New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center.

After residency, Dr. Carruthers moved with his wife Karen and three young sons to Port Washington, NY on Long Island and began a hospital-based neurology practice at what is now Nassau University Hospital. During his 20+ year tenure there, Dr. Carruthers became an Associate Professor of Medicine at SUNY Stony Brook, teaching a generation of residents, and Chairman of the Neurology Department, where he combined the keen intellect that medicine demands with a deep commitment to doing right by both his patients and hard-working colleagues and hospital staff.

He was a man of wide-ranging interests. He played banjo and recorder. He listened to works by Mozart, Phillip Glass and Cheap Trick. He taught his children and grandchildren to play chess. He was a calligrapher and a sculptor. He was an avid fan of the NY Islanders hockey team, witnessing two Stanley Cups hoisted at the ''Barn." He was a birder. During his last 20 years living in Albuquerque, he had the opportunity to feed several generations of road runners who marched daily along the garden wall, and to expand his birders life list.

Beyond his accomplished career and curious spirit, he will be most remembered for the extraordinary generosity that he extended to family and friends.

Richard is survived by his wife Karen, his sons and their spouses: Geoff and Roz, (London); Jay and Marla, (Saratoga Springs); brother Robert and sister-in-law Jeri, (Louisville , CO) and many much-loved nieces, nephews and grandchildren.

A memorial service celebrating his life will be held at 2PM on Saturday, March 11 at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Saratoga Springs. There will also be a July memorial service held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Albuquerque.

In lieu of flowers, the family would appreciate contributions in Richard's memory be made to Doctors Without Borders.

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