Patricia Charache

Patricia Charache (December 26, 1929 – September 12, 2015) was a physician specializing in infectious disease and microbiology. She was a faculty member at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine for more than 50 years, retiring as a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Pathology, Medicine, and Oncology.

Early life and education

She was born in Maplewood, New Jersey. Her parents, Harold S. Connamacher and Carye-Belle Henle were both physicians. She graduated from Columbia High School in 1948 and enrolled in Oberlin College, where she met Samuel Charache; they were married in 1951. The couple moved to New York and she attended Hunter College, graduating in 1952. She received her M.D. degree from New York University School of Medicine in 1957. As a student there she developed her interest in microbiology.

She did an internship in internal medicine at Baltimore City Hospital (now Mercy Medical Center), followed by clinical and research fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania, the Division of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at Johns Hopkins, and the Department of Pediatrics at Harvard University Medical School.

A Hopkins conference room in the Medical Microbiology Division of the Department of Pathology is named for Charache.

Personal life

She was married to Samuel Charache for 64 years until her death. They had a daughter and four grandchildren.