Dr. Arthur S. Leavitt; Retired Physician

Dr. Arthur S. Leavitt, a retired Tujunga general practitioner and one of the first physicians to treat diabetes with insulin, has died in a Glendale hospital. He was 93.

Leavitt died Wednesday of natural causes, said his stepson, Dr. Robert Foran of Beverly Hills.

Leavitt was born Sept. 15, 1897, in Boston. He graduated in 1924 from the University of Manitoba Medical School in Canada and moved to Los Angeles. Leavitt practiced medicine in Los Angeles during the 1920s and 1930s, and served as a colonel in the Army from 1941 to 1946 during World War II, managing a base hospital in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands.

In 1950, he moved his practice to Tujunga, where he specialized in allergy treatment until his retirement in 1982. He was a staff physician at several Glendale area hospitals and conducted a free clinic on Saturdays. Leavitt was one of the first physicians to use insulin to treat diabetes, according to officials at the Los Angeles County Medical Assn., which honored him in 1985 for having one of the longest terms of membership.

Other survivors include a stepdaughter, Sally Sutherland of Sausalito; four step-grandchildren and two step-great-grandchildren. His wife, Rose Leavitt, died in June.

A funeral, with burial to follow, is scheduled for 3 p.m. Sunday at Mt. Sinai Memorial Park, 5950 Forest Lawn Drive, Los Angeles. Mt. Sinai Mortuary is handling the arrangements. Donations can be made in Leavitt’s name to the Verdugo Hills Hebrew Center in Tujunga, where he was a member.