Obituary: Dr. Alfred J. Sternfeld

Former Malverne dentist Alfred. J. Sternfeld, DDS, passed away on Jan. 11 in Deerfield Beach, Fla., at the age of 94. Services were private.

Sternfeld was born on Aug. 24, 1916, in Albany, and earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Michigan in 1939. He served in the Army Air Corps from 1942 to 1944 and proudly referred to himself as “an old soldier from World War II.”

Sternfeld had his dental office in Malverne for 50 years, where he was known as “Doc” to three generations of patients. He was a past president of both the Rotary and Lions clubs of Malverne. In addition to his public service, he had many outside interests and over the years became proficient at photography, model trains, short-wave radio, flying small planes and sailing with the South Bay Cruising Club. He was always cutting edge in electronics and had some of the very first computers.

His beloved wife of 52 years, Adelaide Hamburger Sternfeld, died in 1992. The couple married in 1940 and he had started his practice shorty thereafter. He opened his first office above the Bank of Malverne, which was a curved building that sat on Hempstead Avenue opposite the Long Island Rail Road station. He later moved to 116 Broadway, where he practiced until 1990.

Sternfeld raised his children, Ken and Barbara, in a home on Utterby Road. They attended the Maurice W. Downing Primary School, which was then known as the Lindner Place School. The family moved to West Hempstead in 1952, but Sternfeld was firmly rooted in Malverne where he continued with all his civic business and personal connections. According to his daughter, Barbara, “the friendships he made there lasted his entire life.”

Even some 10 years after Sternfeld moved to Florida in 1995, three years after his wife died of cancer, former patients would call him and beg him to return to practice, according to Barbara. “There was no other dentist like him,” she said.

Sternfeld is survived by his son, Ken Sternfeld, of Palm Beach, Fla., and his daughter, Barbara (BJ) Moore, of Florham Park, N.J. He also leaves one granddaughter, Roxanne Moore, of Atlanta, Ga.

Both Sternfeld and his wife were devoted supporters of Hofstra University. Donations in their honor to the Adelaide Sternfeld Scholarship Fund, 101 Hofstra University, Hempstead, N.Y. 11549, would be greatly appreciated. Online condolences may be sent to Birdybee@aol.com.