CAVENDISH, Vt. – Seymour Leven of Cavendish, Vt. passed on Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022 at age 99. He was born in Grand Rapids, Mich.
He always said that the war years were the best of his life. He served with the 881st Bomb Squadron, 500th Bomb Group as a member of a replacement crew. As a tail-gunner on the Booze Hound [Z Square 6], he participated in the first low-level incendiary raid over Tokyo and in many earlier and later combat missions.
After the war he graduated from the University of Michigan Medical School.
Commissioned as a medical officer in the U.S. Naval Reserve in 1950, he was on active duty during the early months of the Korean conflict.
He, along with wife Gloria, spent next 30 years living and working in New York State.
Before retiring from full time medical practice in 1978, he was a medical director of the Nassau County, N.Y. mental health department.
After relocating full time to Vermont in 1988, he continued his medical practice as a “locus tenens”; traveling around the country to various medical facilities and filling in for doctors there. He did so till he fully retired at age 86.
His later years were spent enjoying life in Vermont with Gloria: eating out, playing golf, and mowing his lawn on his trusty tractor. He treasured his time with his granddaughter and great-grandson.
He is survived by Gloria and his two sons.