Fay A. Rozovsky

DATELINE: HOUSTON, TX

Fay A. Rozovsky, a lawyer nationally recognized for championing the rights of medical patients, and also an author, teacher, patron of Providence College and passionate fan of the New York Yankees, died March 4 at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas, after a valorous three-year battle with bile duct cancer.

A native Rhode Islander who grew up in Cranston and Pawtucket, Mrs. Rozovsky, 69, was one of the first women to graduate as a full-time day student from previously all-male Providence College, earning an A.B. degree summa cum laude in political science in 1973.

A daughter of the late Maurice and Beatrice (Samdperil) Frank, Mrs. Rozovsky subsequently graduated from Boston College Law School and then earned a master’s degree in public health from Harvard University.

She and her late husband, lawyer Lorne E. Rozovsky, founded LEFAR Health Associates in Canada, and in the U.S. she founded and headed the Rozovsky Group, advisors to health care professionals on a wide range of patient safety and consent issues.

Mrs. Rozovsky lectured extensively and taught courses at the Dalhousie schools of medicine and law and Mount St. Vincent University, both in Halifax, Nova Scotia; the William & Mary law school in Williamsburg, Va.; and the Medical College of Virginia at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. She wrote or co-wrote more than 20 books and 600 articles. Her books, among them “Consent to Treatment: A Practical Guide,” have been cited by the Supreme Courts of the U.S. and Canada and in many law journals and academic publications.

Her passion for patient rights was matched by her lifelong allegiance to the Yankees – nourished by her Bronx-born father – and which led her to actually play on the diamond with the likes of Yankee stalwarts Orlando “El Duque” Hernandez, Jose Posada, Bucky Dent, Mickey Rivers, and Chris Chambliss.

That happened in 2015, when at the age of 64 she attended the Yankees’ three-day fantasy camp for women in Tampa, Fla. She came away proudly with an official Yankees uniform and a personalized baseball card that documented how in a series of games she hit a respectable .250.

Mrs. Rozovsky devoted much of her energy to supporting her beloved Providence College, where her parents established a scholarship fund in her name, and she served as president of the school’s international alumni association. In 2008, PC awarded her an honorary doctorate in public health, recognizing her contributions to the field.

She often joked that as the college began moving toward accepting women, she was a “guinea pig” for then-PC president Thomas R. Peterson, O.P.

Mrs. Rozovsky, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management and one of its past presidents, was awarded the society’s Distinguished Service Award in 1998. In 2018 she received the society’s Presidential Citation for Lifetime Achievement in Healthcare Risk Management.

Before moving recently to Houston for medical treatment she lived in Williamsburg, Va.

She is survived by two sons, Joshua I. Rozovsky, of Rocky Hill, Conn., medical services coordinator for the Hartford Gay and Lesbian Health Collective, and Rabbi Aaron A. Rozovsky of Jackson, Miss., and his wife, Eliza; her sister, Dr. Ann Frank Goldstein of Greenville, R.I. and her husband, Gerald S. Goldstein; devoted friends Judy Montgomery, Dr. Maxine Hayes, Geri Amori, and Carolyn Alexander; and her dearly loved beagle, Tevye.

Due to new public health restrictions, Mrs. Rozovsky’s funeral service will be a private graveside service in Lincoln Park Cemetery, Warwick. No shiva will be held. A celebration of her life will be held at Providence College at a future date to be announced.

In lieu of flowers, donations in Mrs. Rozovsky’s name may be made to the Fay A. Rozovsky Scholarship Fund, or the Jewish-Catholic Theological Exchange, both at Providence College; the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston; or to a charity of your choice.