Doctor, activist Arthur Risbrook dies
Dr. Arthur Risbrook, an ex-Army officer, longtime noted physician, businessman and community activist in Nassau, died Feb. 6 from Parkinson's disease complications at the Hospice Inn in Melville. He was 82 and lived in Westbury.
A onetime commander of a self-propelled combat battery during the Korean War, he was discharged after four years from the U.S. Army as a captain of artillery in 1954.
He later was a member of the Caduceus Medical Honor Society of the City College of New York, from which he gained his bachelor's degree before going on to graduate in 1961 from Meharry Medical College in Nashville, Tenn.
In 1965, he began a practice in internal medicine in Hempstead. It lasted until his retirement in 1995. Along the way, he became an area icon - as an entrepreneur and a community activist.
"He helped get parks and recreation programs for our youth," said Mel Jackson of Hempstead, a longtime community and youth leader. "His strength was not only in the medical field but throughout most areas, especially in Nassau's minority communities."
Risbrook did his medical internship at Nassau County Medical Center in East Meadow and kept strong ties to it, serving as president of the medical and dental staff there and later the medical director of its subsidiary, the A. Holly Patterson Geriatrics Center in Uniondale. The hospital now is Nassau University Medical Center.
"[While] medical director of the . . . skilled nursing facility, he opened the first unit for AIDS patients in a skilled nursing facility on Long Island," said Aloysius B. Cuyjet, NUMC's chief health equity officer.
A longtime member of Memorial Presbyterian Church in Roosevelt, Risbrook was elected one of its 12 elders.
"He was a visionary who inspired us to do more for economic development in our communities and to help the disenfranchised," said its pastor, the Rev. Reginald Tuggle. "He was a powerful voice among the elders."
Also calling him "a powerful voice" was Bob McGuire, executive director of the United Cerebral Palsy Association of Nassau County in Roosevelt, on whose board Risbrook served since 1992. The association gave him its McElwain Humanitarian Award in 2009.
"He helped our organization fulfill its mission to provide the highest-quality services to those we serve. He was a good guy. He will be missed by the world," McGuire said.
Risbrook was a founding member of the New York State Board for Professional Conduct, a founder and chairman of the now-defunct Vanguard National Bank in Hempstead, and a founder of the 100 Black Men of Nassau County.
Survivors include his wife of more than 50 years, Ida; two daughters, Donna and Deborah; three grandchildren and a great-grandchild, of Westbury.
A service was held Friday at the church, with burial the next day at Pinelawn Memorial Park, Pinelawn.
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