Edwards Schwentker

A Celebration of Life will be held February 24 at 12:00 in Hershey, PA. More information on the Celebration of Life and donations to the Ruth Paz Foundation in lieu of flowers can be found at https://EPSmemorial.wixsite.com/site

Edwards Park “Ned” Schwentker, 82, of Palmyra, PA, passed away on December 22. Ned was born on February 5, 1941 in Sterling, NY, and grew up in Baltimore. The youngest child of an accomplished physician, his early interest in orthopedics was manifested in the many road kill skeletons he reassembled using acid baths and glue, until he brought a skunk home and his mother put her foot down. He attended Gilman School and Haverford College, where he lettered in wrestling - he would proudly explain that he rarely won a match but never got pinned. He graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School before beginning his residency in orthopaedics at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1964, Ned married Nancy “Bunny” Ravitch, and they had three children, Ann, Pam, and Mark. Ned and Bunny honeymooned on Martha’s Vineyard and subsequently made a generational second home in West Tisbury. Ned completed a pediatric orthopedic fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, followed by work at the Alfred I duPont Institute in Wilmington, DE. In 1976, he moved with his family to Hummelstown, PA to take a dual post at the Hershey Medical Center and as Medical Director of the Elizabethtown Hospital for Children and Youth. Ned’s great professional passions were treating and rehabilitating individuals with spinal cord injuries, global health, and teaching. He invented multiple medical devices in the hospital brace lab, followed by designing and building a pot rack there for his kitchen at home. His interest in global health began on the first trip of several to set up a pediatric rehabilitation program to aid individuals injured in the Armenian earthquake of 1988; and continued in Honduras, where years of twice-yearly clinical trips led him to conceive of and open a dedicated pediatric orthopaedic hospital in San Pedro Sula. Ned and Bunny moved to Honduras to run the hospital, returning to the US only when Bunny became ill and subsequently died. Ned retired more times than we can count, somehow continuing to work each time he thought he was done. His final professional chapter was what he described as his most rewarding: as a facilitator in the Problem-Based Learning program at the Penn State College of Medicine, which he did until the pandemic ended his participation in 2020. Professional accolades included a 2012 Haverford College Distinguished Alumni Award, a 2017 Penn State Honorary Alumni Award, and the 2022 POSNA Humanitarian Award. When he wasn’t working, over the course of his life, he enjoyed woodworking, sailing, playing guitar, riding his BMW motorcycle, “Baby,” and playing with his beloved standard poodles. He was skilled at photographing people (perhaps because it gave him an excuse not to have to engage in small talk at gatherings?) and mentoring young folks interested in medical careers. He was a reciter of poetry, a singer of songs, and a possessor of a somewhat twisted sense of humor. Ned was predeceased by his parents, Francis and Madalyn (Crockett) Schwentker, his brother, Frederik Schwentker, his parents in-law, and his wife, Bunny. He is survived by his sister Ann Phillips, children Ann Schwentker (Scott Shy) of Cincinnati, Pam Waters (David) of Hummelstown, and Mark Schwentker of Palmyra, grandchildren Maddy Waters (Nat Beeten), Tania Colizza, Jefferson Waters (Kaylee), Mila Colizza, Colton Waters, Toby Waters, Michael Colizza, and Lylah Schwentker, as well as great-granddaughter Alora Mitchell, and his life partner, Penny McDougal of Frederick, MD.