In Remembrance: Samuel M. Sobol ’61 Died on June 8 2026

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Professor of Medicine Emeritus, UCSF, and Colonel (Ret.), U.S. Army Medical Corps, Samuel M. Sobol MD,was born in Newark, New Jersey, on August 10, 1939. He passed away on June 8, 2026, in San Francisco at the age of 86 after a brief illness. The cause of death was multisystem failure.

Sam graduated from Yale, where he received his BA magna cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa in 1961. At Yale, he was a member of Hillel and spent a summer working as a volunteer on a kibbutz in Israel. While at Yale, where he followed in the footsteps of his uncles Dan (’52) and Jack Sobol (’53), he was a member of Calhoun College. He loved his years at Yale and considered himself extremely fortunate to have Vincent Scully, a renowned and charismatic professor of history of art, as his faculty advisor for his senior thesis which explored the intersection of domestic architecture in various societies with cultural and behavioral characteristics of those societies.

At Columbia P&S, he was the editor-in-chief of the memorable Class of 1965 yearbook and was the recipient of a WHO grant to study aortic atherosclerosis in Uppsala, Sweden. After an internship and first year internal medicine residency at Boston City Hospital, he was activated under the Berry Plan as a captain in the US Army in 1967. Following a year in Korea, where he was the internist for the 2nd Infantry Division, he was assigned for four years to Belgium, where he was the internist for the US Army NATO Clinic in Brussels. In January 1971, he met his future wife, Helene Fraser, who was working for the Norwegian Foreign Service at NATO. Sam returned to the US in July 1972 to complete an additional two years of medical residency in internal medicine at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, Hawaii. In May 1973, he and Helene were married in Sola, Norway, where her father, Colonel Bjørn Fraser, was the commanding officer of Norway’s second largest military air base. After a honeymoon driving through France, they spent their first year of marriage living in Honolulu near Waikiki Beach. On completion of his residency at Tripler, Sam remained in the military for a cardiology fellowship at Letterman Army Medical Center on the Presidio Army Base in San Francisco where they started a family and raised their two children, Jeffrey and Jillian. Fortunately, Sam was able to stay on the cardiology staff at Letterman for another 11 years following his fellowship, the last five years, after promotion to the rank of colonel, as chief of cardiology and director of the cardiology fellowship training program. While at Letterman, he did some of the earliest research on Amiodarone, a new potent anti-arrhythmia drug, collaborating with researchers at Case Western Reserve University. He was the first to publish a detailed description of pulmonary toxicity, which was the drug’s major adverse effect. 

After 13 of the 20 years of active duty in the Army living in San Francisco, he retired in 1987 and made the transition from military academic medicine to civilian academic medicine. In his new role as clinical professor of medicine, he became the director of the Cardiology Faculty Practice and Clinic at the University of California, San Francisco. After retiring in 2006, he remained active as a Qualified Medical Evaluator for California’s Workers’ Compensation system, and also served as an expert witness in medical legal cases, but had to retire from these pursuits in his mid-80s due to macular degeneration. Nonetheless, he and Helene continued to fulfill their passion for art, music, ballet, good food, and travel, visiting all seven continents, including Antarctica at the end of 2023, closing out a year of extensive travel as they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary. 

Sam, the eldest son of Dr. Herman and Pauline Sobol, was raised in the Jewish faith and followed in his father’s footsteps by becoming a cardiologist. Throughout his life, he revered traditions and honored his heritage as a humanist. He was highly regarded and respected for his intellect, compassion, kindness, and humor. He will also be remembered for his optimism and love of life and will be dearly missed by Helene, his wife of 53 years; his adult children, Jeffrey Sobol and Jillian Sobol; his stepmother Nancy Sobol; his brother Dr. Isaac Sobol; and his sisters Bunny Ben Chaim, Stefanie Sobol, and Shayna Sobol.

Samuel M. Sobol MD, Colonel (Ret.), US Army, will receive a military burial with full honors on July 31 with his immediate family in attendance, at the Golden Gate National Cemetery in San Bruno, California. A Celebration of Life will take place in August for his extended family and close friends.

—Submitted by the family.