J. Arthur Steitz

Dr. J. Arthur Steitz, 98, a longtime and well-loved physician in Burlington County, died Sunday, December 15, at Medford Leas, Medford. His 45-year medical career reflected the history of small town family practice in Southern, N.J. He was born in Philadelphia and earned degrees from Albright College and Jefferson Medical College. Following his WWII service in the Eastern Flying Training Command of the Army Air Corp, Dr. Steitz and his young family returned to the county where his wife, Marion Cramer Steitz was raised and he had spent boyhood summers on the Rancocas Creek. In1947 he opened his family practice in Mt Holly, seeing patients in his home office for $1.50 a visit, making house calls for $2.00 and delivering babies. In an interview with Joel R. Gardner, the author of “Neighbor Caring for Neighbor,” Dr Steitz reflected, “I wanted to be involved in a small town practice; I wanted nothing of city work or big hospitals. It worked out beautifully. I was totally content in a community of this size. There was much more personal contact. You saw them at home and I made many house calls. You got to know your folks very well and I could walk into fifty different houses at suppertime and sit down with the family. I would never go hungry in those days.” In 1964, Dr. Steitz was one of the founders and the first chief of the Department of Family Practice at Memorial Hospital of Burlington County, now Virtua Memorial Hospital. In 1965-1966 he served as President of the Burlington County Medical Society and in 1973 he ended his family practice and went into emergency medicine as a full-time member of the Department of Emergency Services at Memorial Hospital in Mt.Holly. He later worked in the Southern Ocean County Hospital ER near his summer home in Harvey Cedars, Long Beach Island where he was known to his neighbors for his back-porch emergency care removing many a fishhook. A passionate, competitive sailor, he raced lightnings with his family at Barnegat Light Yacht Club where he was one of the founders of the Lightning Fleet and served as the 25th Commodore in 1960. A knowledgeable birdwatcher and known for wearing his binoculars, he followed the fall shorebird migrations from the Brigantine Wildlife Preserve and traveled widely from the Amazon River to Papua New Ginea for unusual bird sightings with his wife of 69 years, Marion who died in 2011. Dr. Steitz is survived by a daughter, Constance Zimmer of Washington, DC, a son, J. Arthur Steitz, Jr. of Grosse Pointe, MI, ten grand children and great grand children, and a sister, Elizabeth McGuire of Lake George, NY. His daughter, Maryann Toedtman died in 1990. Dr. Steitz was a member of the Mt.Holly Friends Meeting where a memorial service will be held on Saturday, Jan.18 at 11a.m., 81 High St., Mt. Holly, N.J. The family invites memorial contributions to the Rancocas Conservancy, POB 2188, Vincentown, NJ, 08088 or Mt. Holly Friends Meeting, 81 High Street, Mt Holly, NJ, 08060

J. Arthur Steitz

December 15, 2013