Leonard Wachs, 93; Long Beach Surgeon for 50-Plus Years

Dr. Leonard V. Wachs, 93, the Long Beach surgeon in practice for more than half a century, died Thursday at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center, where he had worked since 1945, when it was called Seaside Memorial Hospital.

Born in Yaslo, Austrian Empire (now Poland), Wachs came to the United States with his mother and siblings after his father was imprisoned in World War I. He earned his medical degree at the University of Illinois and did postgraduate work in the eye, ear, nose and throat specialty called otolaryngology.

Enlisting in the Army in World War II, Wachs served as a trauma surgeon in the European theater. He moved to Long Beach after the war, established his private practice and joined the Seaside staff and the staff of Los Altos Hospital.