Department News
Remembering Esteemed Rochester Endocrinologist Alvin Ureles
Tuesday, January 6, 2026
Alvin Ureles, MD, internationally renowned thyroidologist and founder of the University of Rochester Medical Center’s Wolk Thyroid Clinic, passed away at the age of 104 on December 14. Ureles served the Rochester community for over half a century and pioneered the use of nuclear and ultrasound medicine to diagnose and treat thyroid disease.
Ureles earned his medical doctorate from the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in 1945, with support from the U.S. Army. He served as captain in a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital unit in the Pacific Theater, witnessing firsthand the impact of nuclear radiation at Hiroshima.
After completing residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Ureles undertook a teaching and research fellowship at Harvard under the mentorship of famed physician Saul Hertz, MD. Together they published seminal work using radioactive iodine to treat hyperthyroidism and thyroid cancer, therapies still used today.
Ureles returned to Rochester in the 1950’s and worked at Genesee Hospital for over twenty years, serving as chief of Medicine and leading the Wolk Thyroid Center. In 1967, he joined URMC bringing new technologies with him. He was one of the first endocrinologists in Rochester to offer thyroid ultrasounds and ultrasound-guided biopsies in the office.
A pillar of both the Rochester community and Medical Center, Ureles was deeply involved in philanthropic organizations that helped URMC develop and expand its Endocrinology Division. He was instrumental in establishing URMC’s Wolk Thyroid Clinic and the Louis S. Wolk Distinguished Professorship in Medicine now held by Endocrinology Chief Stephen Hammes, MD, PhD. He also bought the Endocrinology Division’s first ultrasound with his own money.
“Al is a legendary endocrinologist in the region and at URMC,” said Hammes. “He was an incredibly intelligent, well-respected, yet humble person. He was a big reason that I came to Rochester and was instrumental in building our Endocrinology program over the past several decades.”
Ureles also loved mentoring. He taught many residents and fellows over four decades at URMC and continued to teach into his 80’s. The Farash Foundation, which Ureles helped found, created a scholarship in his name to encourage URSMD medical students to emulate his high standards of medicine and dedication to patients.
“Al took me under his wing when I went into practice,” said Louis Papa, MD, a UR Medicine primary care physician. “He was retiring from his primary care practice and had me come to his office once a week for months to meet his patients individually. It was enormously reassuring for the patients and an automatic vote of confidence in me. I took care of those patients for decades and as they aged, they would still ask how Al was doing. He was truly a Rochester giant and an exemplary mentor.”
Outside the clinic, Ureles was an avid astronomer, watching the skies through his home telescope and at the Marian and Max Farash Center for Observational Astronomy. When he moved into a retirement community, he brought his telescope with him and established an astronomy club.
Ureles was also an accomplished author, publishing several novels with a scientific or medical bent. In 2008, he pledged all proceeds from his historical fiction “Following Joe: The Patriot Doctor and the Siege of Boston” to the URMC Endocrinology Division to fund endocrine and diabetes research.
Ureles’ giving spirit lives on through several funds named in his honor, including the Ureles Research & Education Fund, the Alvin L. Ureles, M.D. Scholarship Fund, and the Palliative Care Program. If you would like to make a contribution to one of these funds in his memory, please visit the UR Advancement websiteand follow the instructions under the Obituary category.