Michael Bartalos Von Nagymad, M.D.,

Dr. Michael Von Bartalos passed away on May 18, 2020, at the James J. Peters VA Medical Center in the Bronx, New York.

Dr. Mihaly Bartalos, the renowned physician professor was born into an old European noble family, tracing his family roots back to somewhere in the mid 1300-1400s’.  For Dr. Bartalos, researching his family was a passion of love, curiosity as well as a duty.

He began his medical education at the University of Budapest.  Fleeing severe consequences due to his active involvement in the anti-communist revolution of October 23, 1956, he fled the country in November of that year.  In absentia, he was sentenced to death by hanging.   Journeying through Austria and France, he settled in West Germany, where he received a scholarship to continue his studies.  In 1960, he received his medical degree with honors at Ruprecht Karl University in Heidelberg, Germany.   While there training as a physician, he also studied psychology, Philosophy and later did cancer research.  At Heidelberg University, he developed a deep curiosity with philosophy that then became a key motivator of his subsequent 40-year career at Columbia University where he was Co-Chair of the Seminar on Death.  Upon arrival in the United States in 1960, he continued his medical training at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where he was a longtime professor, holding appointments in the departments of Psychiatry, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Genetics and Human Development, Pathology, Pediatrics and Radiology.   As a physician, he was steadfast in understanding and assisting in the healing of both body and mind.  In 1967, at age 32, he became institute director and professor at Howard University.   That same year, he published his book called “Medical Cytogenetics”, that later the World Health Organization officially recognized as a new disease, naming it after him as #Ectodermal dysplasia Bartalos type” with the diagnostic code name (ICD-10) Q82.4 in the international classification of diseases.   Between 1968 and 1970, Dr. Bartalos fulfilled his military duties in the United States as Senior Surgeon/Commander.  At the end of 1979, he moved to New York City at the invitation of Columbia University.  He was Vice President, President and Trustee of the Society of Medical Jurisprudence, New York, NY (1994). 

Dr. Bartalos is the recipient of several awards that include a Certificate of Special Congressional Recognition in 1998, The Presidential Medal from the Republic of Hungary in 1991, a Foreign Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and the Research Scholar Award at Howard University.

He is preceded in death by his father, Dr. Mihaly Bartalos, his mother, Rozalia Karola Knazovicky and his brother Jaszay Gyula.

His survivors include his sister Judit Jaszay-Boros of Auckland, New Zealand, his devoted wife Tina Walker Bartalos, his three sons from his first marriage, Michael (Lili Ong) of San Francisco, CA, Gabriel (Mia Miller) of Altadena, CA, and Gregory (Myra Ha) of Scarsdale, NY, grandchildren Andre, Bruno, Claire and Nova, his stepson Tikoyo Wright (Kaitlin Wright), and step-granddaughter Kaia Wright of New York, as are his niece and nephew, Klara and Gyula Jaszay, cousins Piroska Takacs of Slovakia and Tamas Jaszay of Szeged, Hungary.   

His ashes will be laid to rest with his parents in Hungary in accordance to his wishes.