Charles E. ‘Chick’ Silberstein, orthopedic surgeon and Baltimore Orioles team physician, dies – The Denver Post

Charles Eliot “Chick” Silberstein, an orthopedic surgeon who had been the Baltimore Orioles’ team physician from 1978 to 2009, died of sepsis June 25 at the Gilchrist Center Towson.

He celebrated his 90th birthday on June 13.

“Chick was a very special human being and he helped me get to the mound,” said Jim Palmer, the Hall of Fame pitcher who played for nearly 20 years for the Orioles. “He did both of my knees … he was a neighbor, a friend and a mentor.”

Born in Baltimore and raised on Denison Road, he was the son of Louis Silberstein, an assistant Baltimore City solicitor in the administration of Mayor Thomas J. D’Alesandro Jr., and Bessie Rabinowitz.

Family members said he told stories of his summer camp days at Camp Saginaw in Pennsylvania and was still singing camp songs throughout his 80s.

He attended Liberty School and the old Robert E. Lee School and was a 1950 graduate of Baltimore City College.

While in elementary school he befriended Stephen Sachs, who would go on to become Maryland’s attorney general. They became lifelong friends and Dr. Silberstein said he jump started Mr. Sachs’ political career when he helped him win student government president.

He earned a degree at what was then Western Maryland College and was its tennis team captain. He entered the University of Maryland School of Medicine and completed his orthopedic training at what is now Sidney Kimmel Medical College in Philadelphia.

“I came to know Chick when he operated on my knee at Children’s Hospital when I was in high school. He was a gentleman’s gentleman,” said Judge Stuart R. Berger, a family friend who sits on the appellate court in Maryland. “Chick made people feel comfortable and at ease. He had integrity, integrity beyond reproach.”

Dr. Silberstein started practicing in Baltimore in 1964 and was on the staffs of MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital, MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Sinai Hospital, Children’s Hospital and Johns Hopkins hospitals.

From 1971 to 2001, he was a partner in the Four East Madison Group, a practice of orthopedic surgeons.

His son, Richard Silberstein, said, “My father’s patients felt as if he were their grandfather. He so cared about them and spent the time to hear their stories, where they grew up, details like that. He loved knowing those things.

My father had a favorite sweater. It came from the father of a patient from Mongolia. The sweater was native cashmere.”

From 2001 to 2009, Dr. Silberstein saw patients at Johns Hopkins Greenspring Station.

He spent many years in the Orthopedic Department at Kennedy Krieger Institute. He treated numerous cerebral palsy patients who traveled worldwide to see him.

In 2014, the Kennedy Krieger Institute opened and dedicated the Dr. Charles “Chick” Silberstein Sports Park at the Bennett Institute on the Kennedy Krieger School campus: Greenspring Campus High School, once the location of Children’s Hospital.

The Sports Park allows wheelchair athletes with developmental disabilities to engage in sports.

In 2016 the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine established the Dr. Charles Silberstein Research Fellowship.

As the Orioles’ team physician, he was a member of the Association of Major League Baseball Team Physicians from 1984 to 2009 and was its 1992 president.

Dr. Silberstein became a close friend of Orioles pitcher Jim Palmer.

Mr. Palmer said of his physician, “Chick, like a trainer with a bedside manner, was almost like a shrink to me. When I was 38 years old, he came to me and said, ‘Jim, you can’t do this anymore.’ He allowed me to have peace, that medically I had to stop. He was good and he was honest. He was one of those people who made Baltimore special.”

He traveled with the Orioles to Chicago for the playoffs and eventually to Philadelphia for the World Series in 1983.

Dr. Silberstein served on the McDonogh School board of trustees from 1988 to 1996; the Kennedy Krieger Institute board of trustees from 2005 to 2009 and was president of the medical staff of Kennedy Krieger Institute from 1987 to 1988.

“He was somebody I so enjoyed working with. He was a great man. He was even-keeled, kind and complimented people,” said Lainy LeBow Sachs, a retired Kennedy Krieger senior executive vice president.

Dr. Silberstein was a past president of the Maryland Orthopedic Society and chaired the continuing education committee of the American Orthopedic Society for Sports Medicine.

He was a longtime member of the Homeland Racquet Club, Beth El Congregation and Seaside Jewish Community in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Dr. Silberstein and his wife spent summers at their home in The Pines section of Rehoboth Beach.

“It was where the family gathered and had many happy memories of Shabbat and holiday meals on the porch hearing Chick’s wonderful stories, and sometimes his singing a Frank Sinatra or camp song,” said his daughter, Susan Silberstein.

Survivors include his wife of 67 years, Barbara Harrison Silberstein; a daughter, Susan Silberstein of Baltimore; a son, Richard Silberstein of Baltimore; four grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.

Funeral services are private.

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