Robert (Bob) M. Toborowsky, M’64, FEL’68, a former clinical associate professor of psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine, died on October 17, 2024. He was 85.

Dr. Toborowsky graduated from Perth Amboy High School, where he was valedictorian, then attended Rutgers University, where he graduated summa cum laude. He earned his medical degree from Penn’s School of Medicine in 1964 and completed his internship in internal medicine at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. He then returned to Penn, where he completed his residency in psychiatry and served an additional year as chief resident.

Subsequently, he served in the United States Air Force as the chief of psychiatry at a Strategic Air Command Base in Chicopee Falls, Massachusetts.

Dr. Toborowsky was recruited to Penn in 1970 to serve as medical director of the Hall Mercer Community Mental Health Center, as vice chair of psychiatry at Pennsylvania Hospital, and as an instructor of psychology at the hospital. During the 1970s, he became an assistant and then associate professor at the hospital, and in 1976, he also joined the associate faculty of the School of Medicine as an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry. From 1997 until his retirement in 2017, he served as a clinical associate professor of psychology in the Perelman School of Medicine.

During his time at Penn, Dr. Toborowsky taught and supervised medical students, residents and psychology graduate students for many years.

Outside of his duties at Penn, Dr. Toboroswky provided forensic consultation and expert testimony for law firms, insurance companies and other businesses and corporations in a wide variety of civil matters involving a variety of neurological disorders. In that capacity, he testified in local, state and federal courts on numerous occasions, on behalf of both defendants and plaintiffs. He was a member of the ethics committees of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law and the Psychiatric Physicians of Pennsylvania, and served as a senior examiner of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He was named one of the American Health Council’s Best Doctors in America for eighteen consecutive years and was honored as one of America’s top psychiatrists by the Consumers’ Research Council of America and by Philadelphia Magazine.

Dr. Toborowsky is survived by his wife, Patricia Hastie; his children, Brad Toborowsky (Sara), Elizabeth Pollard (Mark), and Carl Toborowsky (Lisa Bazzle); his step-children, Rebecca Lane and Mason Lane (Robert Domenick); his sister, Elaine Schneiderman; his grandchildren, Matthew, Ryan, Olivia, and Jake; Joan Toborowsky; nieces and nephews; and friends.

Contributions in his memory may be made to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (www.cff.org/chapters/delaware-valley-chapter-philadelphia-office) or the National Alliance on Mental Illness (www.nami.org).

---

To Report A Death

Almanac appreciates being informed of the deaths of current and former faculty and staff members, students and other members of the University community. Call (215) 898-5274 or email almanac@upenn.edu.

However, notices of alumni deaths should be directed to the Alumni Records Office at Room 545, Franklin Building, (215) 898-8136 or e-mail record@ben.dev.upenn.edu.