Orange Live

Ulrich Hans Weil, MD, was born in 1923 in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocaw, Poland) to Sigmund Weil, a professor of orthopedics, and Elsa Weil.

With the rise of the Nazis he was sent to school in Switzerland, but at 16 he was required to return to Germany to serve the country. As his father was Jewish, Ulrich was considered to be of ‘mixed blood’, and so was sent to a labor camp, rebuilding bombed railroad lines.

Given the circumstances, the family’s avoidance of deportation to the concentration camps in the east was miraculous. In 1944, at war’s end, he attended medical school at Heidelberg University. At the time there was a shortage of medical residents in the USA. A program inviting German students to America was created to help normalize relations.

Ulrich was among the first participants, becoming an intern at Muhlenberg Hospital, New Jersey. There he met Ruth DeMeza, a nurse. They married in 1953.

In 1955 he began to work at St. Raphael’s hospital in New Haven. He became a professor of Orthopedics at Yale University, and in 1959 founded a private practice called the New Haven Orthopaedic Group (later Connecticut Orthopedic Specialists). After thirty years of private practice, he became Medical Director of Yale-New Haven Hospital’s Emergency Department.

He also served in community roles, including Town of Orange Health Inspector. He attended orthopedic Grand Rounds at Yale Hospital until he was 90 years old.

He and Ruth settled in Orange in 1959, and raised three children: Christa, Ulrich, and Claudia. In his free time he loved reading history, swimming, and writing. He is the author of a medical textbook and many papers, including one exploring the medical condition of Toulouse-Lautrec.

He was a man of keen intelligence, deep morals, and unwavering commitment to the health of his patients and training of his students. In his retirement, Ulrich and Ruth moved to Branford, where he remained until his death.

At his wishes, his remains were donated to the first-year anatomy students at the Yale Medical School.

He leaves behind Ruth, his wife of 63 years, daughter Christa Weil and her husband Dean, daughter Claudia Esposito and her husband Andrew, son Ulrich Weil, and grandchildren Alexander, Niko, Christa, Claire, Madeline, Timothy, Andrew and Matthew.

A memorial service will take place on Saturday August 6 at the Turtle Bay Condominium Clubhouse, 1 Turtle Bay Drive, Branford, from 11:00 to 2:00. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Dr. Weil’s honor to the Ct. Hospice Development Office, Branford Home Care, 100 Double Beach Road, Branford, CT 06405.