Mery Kostianovsky

Mery Kostianovsky, who died on August 18, 2024, was born in Concordia, Argentina on September 4, 1931. She was a trailblazer, both professionally and culturally. From an early age, she demonstrated a gift for academics. As a young woman, she was serious, driven, and was developing a lifelong insatiable intellectual curiosity, particularly for science and the natural world. Though it was very uncommon for women to become physicians at that time, she was determined to pursue medicine. She had an infectious enthusiasm for biology and cellular structure and function, leading to a career in anatomical pathology.  

She enrolled in medical school at La Universidad del Literal in Rosario, Argentina. Her family, which included her parents and her younger sister, Ana, moved from Concordia to Rosario to accompany her when she started medical school. She excelled in medical school, and was bestowed honors including a pathology teaching assistant position in the earlier years of her studies. She initially met Jorge, her husband of sixty-five years, through his father’s business.  They rekindled their friendship and love while attending the same medical school. They bonded around medicine and music, as he was also a baritone opera singer. They were married on June 24, 1957.  

Around 1960, after completing their medical studies, Mery and Jorge sought a more meaningful experience, leading them both to practice medicine on a kibbutz in the Negev of Israel. They immersed themselves in a new language and culture and engaged in a mission to help build the relatively new country of Israel just twelve years after its formation. Mery and Jorge initially lived in a kibbutz and worked as physicians in the kibbutzim throughout the area. They later moved Tel Aviv, where Mery worked in the department of pathology at Ichilov hospital. Mery and her husband Jorge welcomed the birth of their daughter, Deborah, in 1962. A few years later, they moved to St. Louis to pursue medicine at Washington University.  

While at Washington University, she continued academic research and clinical pathology.  Around 1975, Mery and her family moved to Moorestown, New Jersey and then to Philadelphia in 1993. Mery eventually became director of the Electron Microscopy Section of Surgical Pathology at Thomas Jefferson University. In those years, she taught pathology and pursued a wide range of research interests including diabetes and AIDS. She was at the forefront of research on the AIDS epidemic in the mid 1980’s. Her work was widely published. Her passion for biology and cellular structure was evident in multidisciplinary papers such as “The Evolution of Eukaryotic Cells,” which illuminated her interest in cells beyond clinical pathology. She was an honorary visiting consultant to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology (AIDS Division) and was also a visiting scientist in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

After retirement, she refashioned herself as a teacher, inspiring students with classes that included conversational Spanish and Neuroplasticity of the Brain at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Temple University. She loved to explore wide ranging subjects and impart her enthusiasm and love for the topics to her students. 

In addition to her scientific and intellectual acumen, she was outgoing charming, and caring. She had a wide circle of friends and colleagues, including an extensive “Argentinian clan” in St. Louis and the Philadelphia area. She was a fiercely devoted wife and mother. She loved to travel, read, pursue indoor and outdoor gardening, and spend time with family and friends. Mery and Jorge were passionate supporters of the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Philadelphia Opera Company.

Mery (nee Meilijzon) was the beloved wife of the late Jorge Kostianovsky, MD; loving mother of Deborah (Adam Schneider) Kostianovsky; cherished grandmother of Isaac “Zak” Schneider; devoted sister of Ana “Anita” Meilijzon.

Family and friends are invited to Graveside Services Sunday August 25 at 11am, Roosevelt Memorial Park, 2701 Old Lincoln Highway, Trevose, PA. Shiva will be held at the residence of Deborah Kostianovsky and Adam Schneider.  In lieu of flowers, contributions to Mery’s memory may be made to The Philadelphia Orchestra (www.philorch.org) or Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (www.phsonline.org). 

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