In Memoriam: R. Dean Glassman M.D.
Larger than life is now in heaven dancing with the Angels
Dean was born in Chicago to Dr. Jacob Abraham Glassman, MD and Elinor Goodman, and grew up in Miami Beach where he excelled in sports and mischief. Like his older sister, Marsha Glaziere, he had a passion for art and sculpture.
The ever-popular Dean attended the University of Florida to study architecture and was a member Tau Epsilon Phi fraternity. Following his summer internship under award-winning architect Paolo Soleri, Dean had a change of heart and decided to follow the advice of his big brother, Dr. Stuart Glassman. Dean studied medicine at the University of Michoacán in Morelia, Mexico.
Dean thrived in Morelia for seven years and founded the rural area’s first health clinic in La Mora. Following medical school, he entered surgical training at Georgetown University and elected to specialize in plastic surgery at University Hospital in Jacksonville, Fl. He pursued a Craniofacial fellowship at Johns Hopkins/ University of Maryland Shock Trauma Center in Baltimore, where Dean met his wife Lisa, a compassionate nurse and love of his life for over 34 years.
Dean returned to Mexico to work with world renowned plastic surgeon Fernandez Ortiz Monasterio. Dean became Chief of Plastic Surgery at University of Florida, Jacksonville. Eventually, Dean established his own private practice in Jacksonville where he has long been a leader in the medical community. Dean is especially known for coordinating a team of medical professionals who performed countless cleft lip and palate operations around the world and in Jacksonville which changed the lives of hundreds of children.
His legacy lives on through his children— Sienna Graulich, a teacher of children who is married to James Graulich–loving parents of grandson James Dean; Dr. Gabriella Glassman, a plastic surgery resident at Emory in Atlanta; Julian Glassman who is in Wake Forest’s Physician Assistant program; and Jacob Dean Glassman who recently graduated from University of Georgia and is now applying to medical school. The rest of Dean’s story can be found in his autobiography entitled “It Must Have Been A Case Of Mistaken Identity.”
Dean loved his patients with all of his huge, humanitarian benevolent heart. He gave children a chance at a normal life by repairing their congenital abnormalities and cleft lips and palates.
Dean’s friends and family celebrated his life as a generous and gifted healer, artist, inventor, tree surgeon, and lover-of-life on Saturday, June 18th at Hardage-Giddens, Oaklawn Legacy Lodge, 4801 San Jose Boulevard.
Donations may be made in Dean’s honor at: www.themosesproject.org
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