Alan M. Gardner, M.D.

Dr. Alan M Gardner, 82, a Psychiatrist from West Chester passed away peacefully of a dementia-related illness on Saturday December 14, 2024.

Born and raised in Wallingford, PA, he was the son of noted local artists Cyril and Florance Gardner and brother to Virginia Lawrence (deceased) and Edward Gardner (Ildico) of Bryn Mawr. 

A 1960 graduate of Nether Providence High School (now Strath Haven), Dr. Gardner was a gifted student, musician and athlete, where he played on the baseball and basketball teams and at one point contemplated an invite to try out for a Philadelphia Phillies minor league farm team. 

Ultimately, he enrolled at Cornell University, where he pledged Delta Tau Delta Fraternity and played the saxophone and electric bass in a rock 'n’ roll band, “Big Daddy and the Duquesne’s.” He subsequently transferred to Temple University to focus on pre-medicine courses and enrolled at Thomas Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia after graduation. 

It was at Jefferson that he joined Nu Sigma Nu fraternity and at a mixer met his “#1 girl” Marie Zoller who was then attending Women’s Medical College of Philadelphia (predecessor to Drexel University Medical School). They were engaged after just four months and married on November 30, 1968. 

Upon graduation from Jefferson, the couple (by now, with sons Alan and Craig) moved to the Keesler Air Force Base in Biloxi, Mississippi where Dr. Gardner was a major in the U.S. Air Force, serving as a physician. 

In 1976, they returned to the Philadelphia area and settled in West Chester, where Dr. Gardner established a psychiatry practice and brought daughter Marilyn and son David into the family. Dr. Gardner’s psychiatry practice prospered for over forty years in Chester County and the Main Line, with offices in West Chester and Paoli and hospital practices at Paoli Memorial Hospital, Bryn Mawr Rehab, Chester County Hospital, and Malvern Clinic. 

He maintained a bevy of hobbies, as an avid golfer, tennis player, skier, gardener, photographer, saxophonist, dog lover, traveler and Philadelphia sports fan. Alan and Marie especially loved boating, both on the Sassafras River in Maryland (where they rented a summer cottage for many years) and at their shore home in beloved Avalon, NJ, which became an unofficial home base for his growing family of sons and daughters-in-law and 12 grandchildren. 

With a tireless work ethic, Dr. Gardner kept himself busy at all times of every day. And all the while, nothing could keep Dr. Gardner from taking his wife Marie out for a “night on the town,” every Saturday night, 52 Saturdays per year. 

He will be sorely missed by wife Marie; sons, Alan (Laryn) of Weston, Massachusetts, Craig (Kristen) of Malvern, David (Jill) of Hoboken, NJ; daughter Marilyn (Bryan) of Wynnewood; twelve grandchildren: Anna, Caroline, Ben, Danny, Cecily, Emily, Katy, Noah, Layla, William, Brayden, and Claire; and, of course, countless patients in the Philadelphia area who benefitted from his care. 

Relatives and friends are invited to his Viewing 1:00-2:30 PM Friday, December 20, 2024 at the Donohue Funeral Home, 1627 West Chester Pike, West Chester, PA followed by his Funeral Mass 3:00 PM at SS Simon & Jude Church, 8 Cavanaugh Ct, West Chester, PA. Interment Private. 

In lieu of a flowers, donations can be made to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, NAMI at https://donate.nami.org or any preferred dementia charity.