Longtime researcher Dr. David Gene Ostrow, of Chicago, died unexpectedly on Feb. 16 at home. He was 74.
The cause of death was end-stage renal disease, according to the Tribute Archive website.
Ostrow was born on April 28, 1947 in Brooklyn, to Miriam and Bernard Ostrow, and grew up in Teaneck, New Jersey. He graduated from Teaneck High School in 1964, and then attended the University of Chicago for both his B.S. and combined M.D./Ph.D. He resided in Chicago from 1964 until his death, although his work took him all over the world.
For almost 40 years, Ostrow—who was inducted into the Chicago LGBT Hall of Fame in 1997—developed and co-led large-scale longitudinal research on challenging issues in public health, infectious disease epidemiology, mental health services, psychopharmacology and healthcare utilization disparities. After retiring from clinical practice, he focused on the efficacy of cannabis as medicine for addressing many of the social determinants of health and their harm-reduction-based solutions.
His organization and leadership of the City of Chicago's AIDS Task Force (1982-1987) and the largest and longest-running longitudinal multisite study of the pathophysiology and prevention of HIV/AIDS (the MACS, 1983-1991) contributed greatly to understanding the biopsychosocial nature of the disease and its prevention and treatment among socially marginalized persons.
The full obit is at www.tributearchive.com/obituaries/24648421/david-gene-ostrow/west-chicago/illinois/dupage-cremations.
