Memorial today for Grossman Burn Center’s founder at LAFD museum
A public memorial will be held Sunday morning for renowned plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. A. Richard Grossman, who pioneered the comprehensive care of burn patients in Sherman Oaks.
The memorial will be held at 11am at Hollywood’s Old Fire Station 27 at 1355 N. Cahuenga Blvd., which houses a museum run by the Los Angeles Fire Department Historical Society. The Los Angeles Fire Department invites all to attend.
“Dr. Grossman was certainly one of us,” LAFD Interim Fire Chief James Featherstone told City News Service. “He cared for our injured and burned firefighters as if they were his own sons and daughters.”
Grossman, who died last month at age 81 in his Thousand Oaks home, established a burn center at Sherman Oaks Hospital that eventually became the largest private center for burn treatment in the nation. It was named the Grossman Burn Center on its 25th anniversary in 1995.
Over the course of his career, the doctor treated injured firefighters, airplane crash survivors flown in from Taiwan, children burned in accidents and, in one news-making case, comedian Richard Pryor.
“Grossman approaches his work as his destiny, and the feeling is contagious,” burn center physician Dr. Matt Young once said. “The reason we love our work and love Dr. G is because it is rare in life to do something that you feel is your destiny.”
His survivors include his wife Elizabeth, his sons Peter and Jeffrey, stepson John Larson, brothers Joel and Jack Grossman and five grandchildren.
Twitter: @latimesemily
Former Times staff writer Valerie J. Nelson contributed to this report.
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