Leonard Segal, surgery chair at Bucks hospital

Leonard B. Segal took an unusual road to becoming a surgeon, daughter Nina said. He repaired cars to help pay for the tuition.

He was the first in his family to go to college, she said, and then "put himself through medical school."

"He worked as a car mechanic" and "spent summers in the Catskills and Atlantic City" as a waiter. For decades, she said, fixing cars was "one of the things he loved."

On Tuesday, March 8, Dr. Segal, 84, of Cherry Hill, general surgery chair at the former Delaware Valley Medical Center in Langhorne from 1980 to 1988, died at home of complications from a blood disease.

Dr. Segal was an attending physician at Delaware Valley from 1972 to 1990. He was program director for the surgical residency training program at Delaware Valley from 1977 to 1988.

And while with the Langhorne hospital, from 1979 to 1988 he was a clinical assistant professor of surgery at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Dr. Segal grew up near Fifth and Bainbridge Streets, attended Central High School, and graduated in 1949 from West Philadelphia High School.

He earned a premed bachelor's degree at Temple University in 1953 and graduated in 1957 from the former Kansas City (Mo.) College of Osteopathic Medicine and Surgery.

Dr. Segal completed his internship at the now-closed Metropolitan Hospital in Philadelphia in 1958, and then split three years of residency - the first two at the former Riverview Hospital in Norristown and the final year, 1961, at Metropolitan.

After his residency at Metropolitan, she said, he was a staff surgeon there and at what is now Kennedy University Hospital in Cherry Hill.

Roberto Carvajal met Dr. Segal as chief of surgery at Delaware Valley when he began working for him in 1977.

"We became good friends," said Carvajal, a cardiologist at what is now the Bucks County campus of Aria Health in Langhorne.

"He was down to earth. A sincere friend."

Dr. Segal helped found the Occupational Health Service for Graduate Health Systems and directed it from 1988 to 1992, his daughter said.

Then he did similar work as director of the Healthmark Occupational Health Service at Methodist Hospital from 1993 until he retired in 2002."He had a tremendous commitment to serving others," his daughter said.

He was a member of the New Jersey State Council on Developmental Disabilities, a member of the American College of Osteopathic Surgeons, and an examiner for the Pennsylvania Osteopathic Board of Surgery.

And, his daughter said, his writings on general surgery were published in several medical journals.

Besides his daughter, Dr. Segal is survived by his wife, Eileen; a brother; and three grandchildren. A daughter, Kim, died in 2002.

A memorial service was set for 2:30 p.m., Thursday, March 17, at Temple Emanuel, 1101 Springdale Rd., Cherry Hill.

Donations may be sent to the Miracle League of Westchester at www.mlwny.org.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.goldsteinsfuneral.com.

wnaedele@phillynews.com

610-313-8134 @WNaedele