Fink, Lawrence H.
June 2, 1941 - Aug. 17, 2007

Dr. Lawrence H. Fink, 66, Sarasota, formerly of Bethesda, Md., died Aug. 17, 2007.

Services will be at noon Sunday at Chabad of Sarasota, 7700 Beneva Rd. Burial will follow at Palms Memorial Park, Sarasota. Toale Brothers Funeral Home handled arrangements.
Survivors include his wife, (Lana) Pat Fink; and daughters Taryn Elizabeth and Ariel Debra, all of Sarasota.

Dr. Larry Fink was a board-certified neurosurgeon with expertise in spine surgery and the management of patients with neck and lower back injuries. Additionally, Dr. Fink served as medical director for Doctors Hospital for the last two and half years, and was a past chairman of the hospital's board of directors.

After graduating with honors with a B.S. in psychology from Cornell University, Larry earned his medical degree from State University of New York Downstate Medical Center and his M.S. in Neurosurgery from the University of Minnesota. After an internship at Bronx Municipal Hospital, Dr. Fink returned to Minnesota to serve his residency at the Mayo Clinic. A far-reaching decade in the U.S. Navy followed, with tours in the Philippines, Guam, and finally at Bethesda. He twice held professional appointments in neurosurgery at major university medical centers and served as assistant chief of neurosurgery and director of neurosurgical research and education at Bethesda Naval Hospital.

Dr. Fink remained in Bethesda after retiring from the Navy, earning numerous awards including the Ford Foundation/John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University Award for his work on innovations in state and local government. He has been published in medical journals and has lectured internationally and around the United States on subjects ranging from managed healthcare to the areas he has pioneered in the fields of minimally invasive endoscopic and microsurgical techniques in spinal surgery.