Pioneer Nevada physician Sylvain dies at 90

Monday, Jan. 3, 2000 | 10:35 a.m.

As Dr. Gerald Sylvain was on life support systems at the University Medical Center last week, an internist resident saw his name written on a nurse's station board.

The doctor approached Sylvain's sons, Gerald and Bob, and said: "I am sorry about your father. He was a wonderful doctor. He delivered me and long took care of my entire family."

Taking care of Las Vegans -- and indeed all Nevadans -- is something that Sylvain did for seven decades, dating back to his days as a country doctor in Goldfield in the mid-1930s.

Sylvain died Thursday of complications from pneumonia. He was 90.

Services for the Las Vegas resident of 57 years and Nevada resident of 63 years will be 10:30 a.m. Saturday at Our Lady of Las Vegas Catholic Church.

As state epidemiologist in the early 1940s, Sylvain conducted Nevada's first study of tuberculosis. The findings were that the state had one of the highest rates of the disease in the nation. As a result, the state received federal money to treat the afflicted.

"I remember when I was a kid my father would make house calls after hours," said Bob Sylvain, a Las Vegas attorney. "Although he was not a pediatrician, he often made house calls to treat his patients' children. And he delivered many children over the years, including the only set of triplets born at the Las Vegas Hospital."

It was a dedication to healing that took hold in the family. Gerald's son, Dr. Gerald Richard Sylvain, is a Las Vegas ophthalmologist. Gerald Richard Sylvain's son, Gerald Mark Sylvain, is a Las Vegas orthopedic surgeon.

Dr. Gerald Joseph Sylvain, who in 1963 was named the A.H. Robbins Nevada Physician of the Year, was the last survivor of the six physicians who long worked at the Las Vegas Hospital at Eighth Street and Ogden Avenue.

Closed in 1976, the white hospital that was on the National Registry of Historic Buildings was destroyed by a 1988 fire.

During his 32-year tenure at the hospital, Sylvain served as president of the Clark County Medical Society in 1947 and president of the Nevada State Medical Association in 1955.

Born Jan. 23, 1909, in Butte, Mont., Sylvain was the middle of three sons of Arthur Sylvain, who owned the Butte City Cleaners, and the former Florida Paige.

Raised in that rugged mining community, Sylvain learned to play ice hockey and graduated from St. Patrick's Parochial School and Central Catholic High School.

He attended Marquette University in Milwaukee, where he played hockey on the Northern Intercollegiate championship squads of 1926 and '27. Completing his undergraduate work in two years, Sylvain went to Marquette Medical School and earned his medical degree in 1932. After a year of residency at the Milwaukee County Hospital, Sylvain moved to the Nevada mining community of Goldfield on Jan. 25, 1934, and later was named Esmeralda County health officer.

In 1939 Sylvain did postgraduate studies at Rackham Graduate School at the University of Michigan, earning a master's degree in public health. He returned to Nevada the next year to take the state epidemiologist post in Carson City, which he would hold for two years.

Sylvain came to Las Vegas in 1942 to join the partnership at Las Vegas Hospital, the city's first private medical center.

However, two years later, as World War II raged, Sylvain joined the Navy and was put in charge of the Naval Epidemiology Unit No. 21 at Camp Lejeune, N.C., a post he would hold for two years.

In 1946 he returned to Las Vegas to continue his practice and eight years later was elected president of the Nevada Chapter of the Academy of General Practitioners. He also helped establish the health department in Clark County.

After the Las Vegas Hospital closed, Sylvain opened a private practice in the Rancho Medical Center in the mid-1970s and later shared an office with his son.

He retired in 1995 at age 86 after 61 years as a doctor.

"My father had a great sense of humor and was a very pleasant person to be around," Bob Sylvain said. "And, of course, he had a terrific bedside manner. I work in the (Las Vegas) city attorney's office, and every once in a while people come up to me at City Hall and tell me that my dad delivered them."

Twice widowed, Sylvain was married to the former Ardis Laub 1935-60 and to the former Zetta Starzynski 1961-97.

He was a member of the American Medical Association and the Elks.

In his later years, Sylvain provided the UNR Oral History Department with a detailed account of his years in the Nevada health care industry. Those recollections will be published in a book due out early this year, Bob Sylvain said.

In addition to his sons, Sylvain is survived by four daughters, Marlene Varone of Santa Rosa, Calif., Deborah Starzynski of Monterey, Calif., Jill Robbins of Annandale, Va., and D'Anne Sylvain of Naples, Italy; 11 grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his brothers, Roland Sylvain and Roger Sylvain.

The family suggests donations be made in Sylvain's memory to the American Heart Association, 6370 W. Flamingo Road, Las Vegas NV 89103.