Edwards Park (Ned) Schwentker of Palmyra, Pa. died on Dec. 22, 2023. He was 82.

Ned was born on Feb. 5, 1941 in Sterling, N.Y. and grew up in Baltimore, Md. The youngest child of an accomplished physician, his early interest in orthopedics was manifested in the many roadkill skeletons he reassembled by using acid baths and glue, until he brought a skunk home and his mother put her foot down.

He attended the Gilman School and Haverford College, where he lettered in wrestling; he would proudly explain that he rarely won a match but never got pinned. He graduated from Johns Hopkins Medical School before beginning his residency in orthopedics at the University of Pittsburgh.

In 1964, Ned married Nancy (Bunny) Ravitch and they had three children, Ann, Pam and Mark. Ned and Bunny honeymooned on Martha’s Vineyard and subsequently made a generational second home in West Tisbury.

He completed a pediatric orthopedic fellowship at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, followed by work at the Alfred I. duPont Institute in Wilmington, De. In 1976, he moved with his family to Hummelstown, Pa. to take a dual post at the Hershey Medical Center and as medical director of the Elizabethtown Hospital for Children and Youth.

Ned’s great professional passions were treating and rehabilitating individuals with spinal cord injuries, global health and teaching. He invented multiple medical devices in the hospital brace lab, followed by designing and building a pot rack there for his kitchen at home.

His interest in global health began on the first trip of several to set up a pediatric rehabilitation program to aid individuals injured in the Armenian earthquake of 1988. This interest continued in Honduras, where years of twice-yearly clinical trips led him to conceive of and open a dedicated pediatric orthopedic hospital in San Pedro Sula. Ned and Bunny moved to Honduras to run the hospital, returning to the U.S. only when Bunny became ill and subsequently died.

He retired more times than his family could count, somehow continuing to work each time he thought he was done. His final professional chapter was what he described as his most rewarding: as a facilitator in the Problem-Based Learning program at the PennState College of Medicine, which he did until 2020, when the Covid pandemic ended his participation.

Ned’s professional accolades included a 2012 Haverford College Distinguished Achievement Award, a 2017 Penn State Honorary Alumni Award, and the Humanitarian Award bestowed by the Pediatric Orthopedic Society of North America in 2022.

When he wasn’t working, he enjoyed woodworking, sailing, playing guitar, riding his BMW motorcycle named “Baby” and playing with his beloved standard poodles. He was skilled at photographing people — perhaps because it gave him an excuse not to have to engage in small talk at gatherings — and mentoring young people interested in medical careers.

He was a reciter of poetry, a singer of songs and a possessor of a somewhat-twisted sense of humor.

Ned was survived by his sister Ann Phillips of Towson, Md., who subsequently died on Jan. 7. He is survived by his children, Ann Schwentker and her fiancee Scott Shy of Cincinnati, Ohio, Pam Waters and her husband David of Hummelstown, Pa. and Mark Schwentker of Palmyra, Pa.; grandchildren Maddy Waters and her spouse Nat Beeten, Tania Colizza, Jefferson Waters and his wife Kaylee, Mila Colizza, Colton Waters, Toby Waters, Michael Colizza and Lylah Schwentker; great-granddaughter Alora Mitchell; and his life partner, Penny McDougal of Frederick, Md. 

He was predeceased by his parents, Francis and Madalyn Crockett Schwentker; his brother, Frederic Schwentker; and his wife, Bunny.

A celebration of life will be held at 12 p.m. on Feb. 24 in Hershey, Pa. Memorial contributions may be made to the Ruth Paz Foundation. More information about the celebration and how to make donations can be found at EPSmemorial.wixsite.com/site.