Dr. Carl Pearlman achieved professional success as a respected urological surgeon and inspired generational giving thanks to his Dalhousie connection. 

By Emma Sutro | For Giving Power 

For the late Dr. Carl Pearlman (MD’37), attending Dalhousie University provided him with more than just a medical degree. According to his daughter Nancy Pearlman, it gave him an opportunity to pursue his dream profession free from discrimination – an experience that would compel him to pay it forward and create a circle of kindness that continues to this day. 

In 1974, Carl helped reinvigorate the Dr. W. H. Hattie Prize in Medicine. First established in 1931, it is awarded to the student who, upon completion of their fourth year, has achieved the highest academic standing in Medicine. In 1986, Carl also established the Dr. Carl Pearlman Prize in Urology, which recognizes a student who shows the greatest aptitude and interest in urology.  

Generosity and kindness helped ensure success

Born in Brooklyn, New York, to Polish Russian immigrants, Carl set his sights on attending medical school with a special interest in urology. However, he faced a significant barrier in realizing his dream: Carl was Jewish. In the 1930s, many medical schools in the United States and Canada adopted a strict quota system limiting the number of Jewish students who were eligible for admission. Carl took a chance, applied, and was accepted to Dalhousie.

In addition to receiving admission to Dalhousie’s Medical School, Carl also had the last two years of his degree paid for anonymously.

“My dad never forgot that generosity and kindness,” says Nancy. “I appreciate that he was recognized as an intelligent, competent, and unique person who could study medicine, and that he was allowed to finish medical school because somebody paid his tuition at a time when he couldn’t.”

When Carl graduated from Dalhousie in 1937, he received the Dr. W. H. Hattie Prize in Medicine – the prize he would later go on to support.

Carl returned to the United States to complete his residency at the Medical College of Georgia. When the U.S. entered World War II, he joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps and was stationed in Huntington, West Virigina. It was there he met his future wife, Agnes Branch. After the war, Carl, Agnes and their two young children relocated to Orange County, California, where Carl set up practice.

Caring for his community

While serving the affluent communities of Orange County, Carl would set aside one day a week to provide treatment to those who may not be able to cover the full medical fee. He also rarely refused to take on a surgery.

“In his eighties, before he stopped being able to do major surgeries, he took an eight-hour surgery,” Nancy recounts. “It wasn’t good for him to take that long of a surgery, but some of the other doctors wouldn’t take it. It didn’t pay. He wasn’t in medicine for the money, he was in it to save lives.”

After over four decades of practice, with numerous publications and a clinical professorship at the University of California, Irvine, under his belt, Carl retired from private practice in 1988. However, he continued to work part-time at the Orange County Public Health Department until 1996. At the time of his full retirement, he was as the longest-serving physician in Orange County’s history.

Carl passed away in 1998, but Nancy remains committed to continuing her father’s legacy at Dalhousie. In 2022, she began her own philanthropic journey at Dalhousie, contributing to the prizes her father had supported.

“I am always talking about my family’s story and connection to Dalhousie,” says Nancy. “Giving to Dalhousie has motivated me to give in other ways, just like my parents. I feel like I am carrying on their tradition of caring for and helping others.”

Committed to paying it forward

When Dr. Mark O’Reilly (MD’23) was awarded the Dr. W. H. Hattie Prize in Medicine during the Spring 2023 Convocation, he says it brought up a variety of emotions.

“I felt a strong sense of gratitude and relief,” says O’Reilly. “Over four years of medical school, with tuition and the rising cost of living, debt steadily accumulates. But beyond the financial implications, I felt a sense of recognition and encouragement. This award acts as a source of motivation to fuel my continued efforts as I move onto the next chapter of my training.”

O’Reilly, who grew up on a hobby farm in Windsor, Nova Scotia, says his love of science was imparted on him by his mother (a respiratory therapist) and father (a chemical engineer). However, it was during his rural longitudinal clerkship on the South Shore of Nova Scotia that he realized he had found his calling.

“During one shift, I discovered that a patient had an unstable angina, a condition similar to a heart attack but that does not have lab or EKG abnormalities,” he says. “The feeling of being able to diagnose and then, more importantly, help patients in a very tangible way – that’s what drew me to medicine and, more specifically, internal medicine.”