In Memoriam

Antoinette Kuzminski
1946-2024

COOPERSTOWN—Dr. Antoinette Kuzminski, long-time Bassett physician, passed away on August 22, 2024 after a long struggle with a rare cancer, angiosarcoma.

Known by family and friends as T’nette, she was born as Antoinette Mendlow in New York City in 1946, where she was raised with her siblings on Central Park South. Her father, Leonard Mendlow, was a knitwear manufacturer, and her mother, Cecille Thurlow Mendlow, was a former Hollywood actress. T’nette attended Ecole Francaise, Friends Seminary, and Hunter College High School, before going to Smith College, where she graduated in 1967.

While at Smith she met an Amherst student, Adrian Kuzminski. They fell madly in love and were married in 1967. She and Adrian lived the next few years as graduate students between Rochester and Ithaca New York. T’nette got a master’s degree in American history at the University of Rochester, and studied architectural history at Cornell. She also worked in the City Planning Department of the City of Ithaca. The couple participated actively in the student movement to end the war in Vietnam, and first discovered the joys of country living in the rural Finger Lakes. Their first son, Stefan, was born in 1969.

On the night of the Kent State shootings, T’nette decided to become a doctor. She took her first pre-med courses at Trinity College, Dublin, when Adrian was in residence there in 1970-71 as a Fulbright scholar. In 1971, the family moved from Dublin to Honolulu, where Adrian became a professor at the University of Hawaii. T’nette completed her medical training at the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii and searched for an internship as a first year medical resident. The couple remembered visiting T’nette’s sister, Stephanie, many years earlier in Cooperstown, when she rotated through Bassett as a medical student. Recalling the charm of the village and the reputation of the hospital, they resolved to return. T’nette won an internship at Bassett in 1977-78. The family then went back to Hawaii for the next two years, where T’nette continued her training at the University of Hawaii Integrated Medical Residency Program. They then returned permanently to Cooperstown in 1980, when T’nette became chief resident in medicine, and subsequently an attending physician in internal medicine. Their second son, Jan, was born in Hawaii in 1978.

T’nette spent the rest of her 37-year career at Bassett, until she retired in 2016. She was a role model to many, as one of the strong pioneering women of her generation to make her way into the then largely male-dominated medical world. Known for her diagnostic skills, forthright manner, and uncompromising attention to detail, she helped countless patients, and greatly enjoyed teaching medical students. She won the Golden Apple award for teaching in 2001. She also engaged in original research on treatment of patients with vitamin B-12 deficiency, helping change medical practice by establishing new guidelines replacing injection therapy with oral therapy.

She had classical tastes. She loved music, especially Bach, had a beautiful singing voice, a talent for drawing, and often played the piano. She also cultivated extensive flower gardens around her home, and she and Adrian loved to buy local art and antiques, especially old paintings. She had a strong civic conscience, and in retirement became active in local planning and land-use issues. She founded Kid Garden, an ongoing project at the Cooperstown Elementary School, introducing children to the basics of plant cultivation. She also co-authored many of the articles in the “Sustainable Otsego” column in this newspaper, focused on innovations by local farmers such as regenerative agriculture.

She is survived by her husband, Adrian, her sons Stefan and Jan, her daughter-in-law Melissa Angier, her two grandchildren, Sonya Kuzminski and Rowan Kuzminski, as well as her siblings, Julie Conger, Stephanie Mendlow, and Philip Mendlow, along with numerous nieces and nephews, and her many, many friends.

The family’s deepest gratitude goes to Dr. Anush Patel, and to Maryanne Calkins and the Helios network of hospice care. The family is grateful as well for the assistance of many friends during her illness. Any donations in her memory should be directed to the Friends of Bassett or Helios Care.the assistance of many friends during her illness. Any donations in her memory should be directed to the Friends of Bassett or Helios Care.