Dr. Aaron Gunther, 90, a longtime Chicago doctor of internal medicine who also worked as a city pathologist, died Saturday, May 18, of complications from heart surgery at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston. Born in Chicago, Dr. Gunther was the son of a jeweler who grew up in the city’s Albany Park neighborhood. He received a bachelor’s degree in 1929 from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He met his future wife, Beatrice, in Albany Park and married her in 1934. The following year, he graduated from the University of Illinois Medical School in Chicago. He interned at Cook County Hospital. In 1938, he was appointed by the city to do autopsies on people who did not die in hospitals. Dr. Gunther in the late 1930s started his own practice, but in 1941 was drafted into the Army. He served in the Medical Corps in Europe. He was later awarded a Bronze Star. After the war, Dr. Gunther resumed private practice in West Rogers Park while working part time as a pathologist for the city. “He was always looking for solutions–always reading his journals, always consulting with other doctors to look for the best cure for his patients,” said his daughter, Vicki. Dr. Gunther, who retired in 1988, lived in West Rogers Park for almost 50 years. Besides his daughter, he is survived by two other daughters, Wendy Margolis and Lynne Gutner; six grandchildren; and a great-granddaughter. A service will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday in Weinstein Family Services Wilmette Chapel, 111 Skokie Blvd., Wilmette.
