David Kammerman passed away peacefully at his home, Friday, September 28, after a five-year battle with cancer. He was fearless and never let his illness take away from his ability to live in the present. David was born on February 27, 1956.
He grew up in New York City and attended Yeshiva High School of Queens. When he was 16, he moved to a kibbutz in Israel. He described this period as one of the most meaningful of his life.
He graduated from SUNY New Paltz in 1979, where some of his proudest accomplishments included creating a children’s theater company with his siblings, which toured around the Hudson Valley, and winning the Heinz Ahlmeyer Jr. Award for his achievements in swimming. After earning his MD at Albany Medical College in 1986, he began working at a hospital where he met the love of his life, Maura. The two eloped to Dublin in 1988.
Together they began what he considered to be the greatest project of his life, raising their four sons: Max, Oliver, Jake, and Harry. Early in his career, David worked as a traveling doctor, which brought his young family from Utah to Louisiana to South Carolina to Israel, and finally to Binghamton in 1998. As a pain specialist, he developed a reputation as a kind physician who always made extra time to get to know his patients and their families.
When he was not at work, he spent nearly all of his spare time with his wife and children. He loved taking long bike rides with Maura through the country roads in the hills outside of Binghamton. On Saturday mornings, he spent hours drinking coffee at the breakfast table where he seemed to draw from an endless well of humor and creativity.
His political views were deeply complex, borne from a socialist-leaning father and tempered by his unrelenting desire to explore even the furthest right perspective to its end. In one moment, David could reference an article from the New Yorker and in the next, flawlessly defend his opinion that Kylie was the coolest of the Kardashians/Jenners. Part of David’s appeal stemmed from his penchant for self-deprecation.
He had a dislike for brands and once even had a vendor scrape the Rayban logo from his new sunglasses. He loved suspenders, cufflinks, fedoras, and pinky rings. His ideas about fashion were original and eccentric.
In his later years, some of his best memories were of traveling with his family to places like the Amazon Rainforest, the Great Pyramid of Giza, and the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. David is predeceased by his parents Joseph and Rose. In addition to his wife and four sons, he is survived by his brother Josh (Debra) and sister Lisa (Evan), as well as his brothers-in-law Michael, Christopher, and Patrick Dowd.
He leaves behind dozens of special nieces, nephews, cousins and friends. His family would like to thank Drs. Sato and Gonsalves, Renee Zalinski, and the Thomas Jefferson University oncology team for their exceptional care.
Donations for continued research in ocular melanoma would be appreciated to honor David’s memory. Checks can be mailed to Ocular Melanoma Foundation 1717 K Street NW Suite 900, Washington DC 20006. Online donations can be made at: www.
ocularmelanoma.org/DavidKammerman. A funeral service will be held on Sunday, September 30 at noon at Chabad of Binghamton. A private burial will follow.
David’s family will sit Shiva (receive friends) from 4-7 pm this Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Arrangements are with the Ernest H. Parsons Funeral Home, 71 Main Street, Binghamton, NY. Please visit ParsonsFuneral.
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