Carl Leon Stanitski

Carl Leon Stanitski died on Sunday, July 6, 2025 in Charleston, South Carolina.

Carl was born on May 3, 1939, to Leon and Florence Stanitski in Shamokin, PA, where he grew up with his identical twin brother, Conrad. After graduating from Shamokin High School, Carl went on to Bloomsburg State Teachers College, where he studied Chemistry and graduated in 1960. After teaching Physics and English at Lower Dauphin High School for several years, Carl transitioned to a career in medicine, attending Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, PA and earning his medical degree in 1967.

He completed his internship at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia in 1968, spent two years working for the National Institute of Health in Washington, DC, and completed his residency in Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, PA in 1974. During his training, he also completed fellowships at the University of Southern California’s Rancho Los Amigos Hospital in Los Angeles, CA and Children’s Hospital of Boston.

For the next 17 years, Carl practiced orthopaedic surgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh, with a particular interest in pediatric and adolescent sports medicine, limb deformities, and spinal deformities. His years as a high-school teacher had given him a love for teaching that lasted throughout his medical career, and he served for 11 years as an Associate Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. In 1991, Carl moved to Detroit, MI, where he served for 8 years as the Chief of Pediatric Orthopaedics at Children’s Hospital of Michigan. In 1999, he moved to Charleston, SC where he practiced and researched in pediatric orthopaedic surgery at the Medical University of South Carolina and served as Professor (and later, Emeritus Professor) of Orthopaedic Surgery and Pediatrics at MUSC.

Carl’s medical career spanned a transformative era in orthopaedics. When he was in medical school in the 1960s, orthopaedic surgery and sports medicine still centered around X-rays, plaster casts, and carpentry tools — Carl jokingly called sports medicine of that time “primary care for sweaty people.” Carl played a vital role in surgical developments and teaching in the fields of pediatric orthopaedics and pediatric sports medicine. Over the course of his career, he published two books on pediatric orthopaedics and dozens of articles and textbook chapters on the subject, including publications in collaboration with colleagues in several other countries.

Carl’s professional endeavors and volunteering for global-health outreach efforts took him to more than 30 countries during his career. Most notably, he worked with the Polish-American Children’s Hospital of Krakow in connection with Project Hope for 15 years and was proud to be able to contribute his skills and knowledge to his ancestral homeland of Poland. After retiring from medical practice, he continued to travel throughout the U.S. for another decade, reviewing medical residency and fellowship programs as a field staff member for the Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education. He was pleased that in the course of his lifetime, he visited all seven continents, and it always thrilled him to board an airplane bound for a place he hadn’t been before.

Carl’s interest in orthopaedics was linked inextricably to his personal identity as a lifelong athlete. He grew up playing baseball and basketball and running track, and he went on to run track and play basketball in college. Carl then coached basketball and track and field during his tenure as a schoolteacher. Professionally, he served as a team doctor for the Carnegie-Mellon University football team and the Pittsburgh Penguins NHL hockey team. As an adult, he took up a variety of other sports: marathon running, skiing, squash, sailing, paddle tennis, and rowing. His most enduring athletic interest was tennis, which he continued playing into his 80s. Carl shared his love of athletics with his twin brother, Conrad, and together they ran two marathons, rowed countless kilometers, and played years of tennis.

Carl loved jazz and classical music, learning to play the clarinet and saxophone in his youth. As an adult, he became an avid singer and lent his baritone voice to numerous choirs in Pittsburgh, Detroit, and Charleston.

While he enjoyed the many honors and accolades he received for his professional achievements, Carl was far more proud of the personal impact his work had on the young patients he treated and the young doctors and medical students he taught. His devotion to the skill of performing surgery was matched only by his insistence that surgeons must treat their patients first and foremost as people. Carl’s favorite saying about the practice of medicine was “Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

Carl is survived by his four children: Mike Stanitski (Christine), Ann Stachowicz (Mark), John Park (Hee-Joo), and Kate Stanitski (Frazer McGilvray); his grandchildren: Meg and Charlie Stanitski, William, Katie, and Tommy Stachowicz, and Quinn and Hugh Park; his two stepchildren: Whitney Wakeling and Jonathan Bell; his twin brother, Conrad (Barbara); his brother- and sister-in-law, Mike and Sue Hill; his nieces: Susan Stanitski, Beth Wendell, and Andrea Arana; his nephew, Steven Hill; his cousins, including Louise Mount and Audrey Hurley; and the mother of his four children, Kathryn Stanitski. He is also survived by many who were like family including: Bill and Cookie Horner, Carol Woolman, Dick and Dana Green, and Bob and Brenda Madigan. Carl is predeceased by his parents, his brother- and sister-in law, David and Joni Hill, and his nephew, Jim Hill.

A private memorial will be held. Donations in memory of Carl may be made to the Friends of Acadia at friendsofacadia.org/membership-giving/donate or at P.O. Box 45, Bar Harbor, ME 04609.

Arrangements by J. Henry Stuhr, Inc., West Ashley Chapel.

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